The Impact of Levodopa Administration on Learning from Short-term and Long-term Action Consequences: a Paradigm Validation.
Abstract
Behavioral and neuroimaging studies have identified two valuation systems in the human brain for controlling behavior known as model-free (MF) and model-based (MB). MF is based on immediate evaluation and MB is based on long-term evaluation of the outcome of our decisions. Previous studies suggest that dopamine baseline activity may play an important role in the balance between the two systems and determine how they compete or interact in controlling our actions. The overarching aims of this study is to investigate the impact of levodopa administration on learning from immediate and long-term action consequences, and to dissociate the role of striatal subregions in learning and action selection. Here, an fMRI fast-event related paradigm is designed and validated which enables to computationally model the integration of MF and MB learning and decision making on both behavioral and neural levels.