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Dopamine precursors depletion impairs impulse control in healthy volunteers

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Abstract

The aim of the present study was to decipher the role of the dopamine system in impulse control. Impulsive actions entail (i) activation of the motor system by an impulse, which is an urge to act and (ii) a failure to suppress that impulse, when inappropriate, in order to prevent an error. These two aspects of action impulsivity can be experimentally disentangled in conflict reaction time tasks such as the Simon task, which measures susceptibility to acting on spontaneous impulses (as well as the proficiency of suppressing these impulses). In 12 healthy volunteers performing a Simon task, dopamine availability was reduced with an amino acid drink deficient in the dopamine precursors, phenylalanine and tyrosine. Classic behavioral measures were augmented with an analysis of the electromyographic activity of the response effectors. Electromyography allows one to detect covert activations undetectable with strictly behavioral measures and further reveals the participants’ ability to quickly suppress covert activations before they result in an overt movement. Following dopamine depletion, compared with a placebo condition, participants displayed comparable impulse activation but were less proficient at suppressing the interference from this activation. These results provide evidence that the dopamine system is directly involved in the suppression of maladaptive response impulses.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dominique Reybaud, Bruno Schmid, and the pharmacy personnel of the hospital Sainte Anne for their helpful technical contribution. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Institut de recherches biomédicales des armées, France.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées, Brétigny-sur-Orge, France

    Céline Ramdani

  2. Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, Aix-Marseille Univ/CNRS, Marseille, France

    Laurence Carbonnell

  3. Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, Aix-Marseille Univ/CNRS, Marseille, France

    Franck Vidal & Thierry Hasbroucq

  4. Hôpital d’instruction des armées Sainte Anne, Toulon, France

    Cyrille Béranger

  5. Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Alain Dagher

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  1. Céline Ramdani
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Correspondence to Céline Ramdani.

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Ramdani, C., Carbonnell, L., Vidal, F. et al. Dopamine precursors depletion impairs impulse control in healthy volunteers. Psychopharmacology 232, 477–487 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-014-3686-z

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