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Dopamine determines how reward overrides risk

Why do animals pursue reward in the face of punishment? Dopamine-releasing neurons that promote reward-seeking behaviour indirectly impair those that encode punishment avoidance, affecting decisions on risk.
  1. Kristin M. Scaplen

    1. Kristin M. Scaplen is in the Department of Psychology, Bryant University, Smithfield, Rhode Island 02917, USA.

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  2. Karla R. Kaun

    1. Karla R. Kaun is in the Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 02912, USA.

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The ability to evaluate both risk and reward is necessary for animals to survive in their natural environment. Risk avoidance and reward seeking are influenced by internal state (such as hunger or thirst), environmental context and previous experience, and can have far-reaching effects on mental health1. For instance, motivation for reward seeking is often blunted in depression, but enhanced in drug addiction2,3. Furthermore, increased motivation for reward in disorders such as addiction often corresponds with diminished risk avoidance4. The precise mechanisms that underlie motivational drives have eluded scientists, owing mainly to the sheer number and diversity of neurons in the brain that reinforce reward seeking and punishment avoidance. Writing in Nature, Jovanoski et al.5 use neurogenetic tools that provide precise control over a mixed population of dopamine-releasing neurons in the brains of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) to clarify the neural mechanisms behind unconstrained reward seeking — the persistent pursuit of reward even in the face of punishment.

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Nature 623, 258-259 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03085-4

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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