Dopamine and serotonin in human substantia nigra track social context and value signals during economic exchange

Seth R. Batten (), Dan Bang (), Brian H. Kopell, Arianna N. Davis, Matthew Heflin, Qixiu Fu, Ofer Perl, Kimia Ziafat, Alice Hashemi, Ignacio Saez, Leonardo S. Barbosa, Thomas Twomey, Terry Lohrenz, Jason P. White, Peter Dayan, Alexander W. Charney, Martijn Figee, Helen S. Mayberg, Kenneth T. Kishida, Xiaosi Gu () and P. Read Montague ()
Additional contact information
Seth R. Batten: Virginia Tech
Dan Bang: Virginia Tech
Brian H. Kopell: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Arianna N. Davis: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Matthew Heflin: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Qixiu Fu: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Ofer Perl: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Kimia Ziafat: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Alice Hashemi: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Ignacio Saez: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Leonardo S. Barbosa: Virginia Tech
Thomas Twomey: Virginia Tech
Terry Lohrenz: Virginia Tech
Jason P. White: Virginia Tech
Peter Dayan: Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics
Alexander W. Charney: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Martijn Figee: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Helen S. Mayberg: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Kenneth T. Kishida: Wake Forest School of Medicine
Xiaosi Gu: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
P. Read Montague: Virginia Tech

Nature Human Behaviour, 2024, vol. 8, issue 4, 718-728

Abstract: Abstract Dopamine and serotonin are hypothesized to guide social behaviours. In humans, however, we have not yet been able to study neuromodulator dynamics as social interaction unfolds. Here, we obtained subsecond estimates of dopamine and serotonin from human substantia nigra pars reticulata during the ultimatum game. Participants, who were patients with Parkinson’s disease undergoing awake brain surgery, had to accept or reject monetary offers of varying fairness from human and computer players. They rejected more offers in the human than the computer condition, an effect of social context associated with higher overall levels of dopamine but not serotonin. Regardless of the social context, relative changes in dopamine tracked trial-by-trial changes in offer value—akin to reward prediction errors—whereas serotonin tracked the current offer value. These results show that dopamine and serotonin fluctuations in one of the basal ganglia’s main output structures reflect distinct social context and value signals.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01831-w

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