Dopamine and serotonin neurotransmissions exert complementary control over primate approach and avoidance
Lisa Gauthier, Guillaume Drui, Justine Debatisse, Yosuke Saga, Mathilde Millot, Eva Martinez, Elise Météreau, Karine Portier, Philippe N. Tobler, Léon Tremblay, Benjamin Pasquereau · 2025
Read Dopamine and serotonin neurotransmissions exert complementary control over primate approach and avoidance by Lisa Gauthier, Guillaume Drui, Justine Debatisse, Yosuke Saga, Mathilde Millot, Eva Martinez, Elise Météreau, Karine Portier, Philippe N. Tobler, Léon Tremblay, Benjamin Pasquereau (2025) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-12804911.txt.
Description
Two brain chemicals, dopamine and serotonin, are the targets of many mind medicines, yet their exact roles in seeking rewards and dodging harm were murky. Lisa Gauthier led a team that compared two drugs in four monkeys trained on an approach-avoidance task. One drug blocks dopamine recycling; the other blocks serotonin recycling. Brain scans showed where each drug bound at working doses.
The dopamine drug sharpened reward seeking, binding in a deep brain hub. The serotonin drug strengthened active avoidance of bad outcomes, binding widely in emotion circuits. Rather than fighting, the two systems steer different responses. The team suggests pairing such drugs could treat separate symptom strands in mental illness.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Lisa Gauthier, Guillaume Drui, Justine Debatisse, Yosuke Saga, Mathilde Millot, Eva Martinez, Elise Météreau, Karine Portier, Philippe N. Tobler, Léon Tremblay, Benjamin Pasquereau |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 44 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |