Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
neuroscience
Effects of exogenous testosterone on the ventral striatal BOLD response during reward anticipation in healthy women
NeuroImage, Volume 52, No. 1, Year 2010
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
Correlational evidence in humans shows that levels of the androgen hormone testosterone are positively related to reinforcement sensitivity and competitive drive. Structurally similar anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are moreover widely abused, and animal studies show that rodents self-administer testosterone. These observations suggest that testosterone exerts activational effects on mesolimbic dopaminergic pathways involved in incentive processing and reinforcement regulation. However, there are no data on humans supporting this hypothesis. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the effects of testosterone administration on neural activity in terminal regions of the mesolimbic pathway. In a placebo-controlled double-blind crossover design, 12 healthy women received a single sublingual administration of .5. mg of testosterone. During MRI scanning, participants performed a monetary incentive delay task, which is known to elicit robust activation of the ventral striatum during reward anticipation. Results show a positive main effect of testosterone on the differential response in the ventral striatum to cues signaling potential reward versus nonreward. Notably, this effect interacted with levels self-reported intrinsic appetitive motivation: individuals with low intrinsic appetitive motivation exhibited larger testosterone-induced increases but had smaller differential responses after placebo. Thus, the present study lends support to the hypothesis that testosterone affects activity in terminal regions of the mesolimbic dopamine system but suggests that such effects may be specific to individuals with low intrinsic appetitive motivation. By showing a potential mechanism underlying central reinforcement of androgen use, the present findings may moreover have implications for our understanding of the pathophysiology of AAS dependency. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.
Authors & Co-Authors
Hermans, Erno Jan
Netherlands, Nijmegen
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
Netherlands, Nijmegen
Radboud University Medical Center
Bos, Peter A.
Netherlands, Utrecht
Universiteit Utrecht
Ossewaarde, Lindsey
Netherlands, Nijmegen
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
Ramsey, Nick F.
Netherlands, Utrecht
Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience
Fernández, Guillén
Netherlands, Nijmegen
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
Netherlands, Nijmegen
Radboud University Medical Center
Van Honk, Jack
Netherlands, Utrecht
Universiteit Utrecht
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
Statistics
Citations: 200
Authors: 6
Affiliations: 5
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.04.019
ISSN:
10538119
Research Areas
Disability
Participants Gender
Female