Ventral striatal dopamine synthesis capacity is associated with individual differences in behavioural disinhibition

Ventral striatal dopamine synthesis capacity is associated with individual differences in behavioural disinhibition

Blog Article

Pathological gambling, alongside addictive and antisocial disorders, forms part of a broad psychopathological spectrum of externalizing disorders, which share an underlying genetic vulnerability.The shared externalizing propensity is a highly heritable, continuously varying trait.Disinhibitory personality traits such as impulsivity and novelty seeking function as indicators of this broad shared externalizing tendency, which may reflect, at the neurobiological level, Upholstered Full Bed variation in the reactivity of dopaminergic brain reward systems centred on the ventral striatum.Here, we examined whether individual differences in ventral striatal dopamine synthesis capacity were associated with individual variation in disinhibitory personality traits.Twelve healthy male volunteers underwent 6-[18F]Fluoro-L-DOPA (FDOPA) positron emission tomography (PET) scanning to measure stride motor striatal dopamine synthesis capacity, and completed a measure of disinhibited personality (novelty seeking).

We found that levels of ventral, but not dorsal, striatal dopamine synthesis capacity were significantly correlated with inter-individual variation in disinhibitory personality traits, particularly a propensity for financial extravagance and irresponsibility.Our results are consistent with preclinical models of behavioural disinhibition and addiction proneness, and provide novel insights into the neurobiology of personality based vulnerability to pathological gambling and other externalizing disorders.