Direct Dopamine Recording From Humans Engaging Working Memory

PROJECT SUMMARY Dopaminergic signaling is proposed to be critical for gating items into working memory and for maintaining representational content over delays in the presence of distracting information. Working memory deficits due to dysregulated dopaminergic signaling are associated with a broad range of psychiatric illnesses. However, the precise role of dopamine in working memory has yet to be fully understood due to limits on our ability to measure it in humans. Recent advances by PI Montague’s research group allow for tracking neuromodulator release in epilepsy patients using fast-scan cyclic voltammetry augmented with machine learning (elastic net regression). Our team can now measure dopamine responses in awake humans with sub-second temporal resolution, allowing for precise characterization of phasic and tonic dopamine release in cortical areas that have been associated with cognitive processes that constitute working memory. This application merges this technique with measurement of working memory processes to test fundamental predictions about dopamine’s function in cognitive control. We will record dopamine release in the lateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and hippocampus during performance of a set of working memory tasks. Medication-resistant epilepsy patients will participate in the study during phase-II monitoring for seizure activity with surgically implanted electrodes. These electrodes will be implanted at Banner Hospital in the Phoenix metropolitan area (Co-I Bina). During recording, patients will complete Delay Match-to-Sample and Delayed Estimation Visual Working Memory tasks. Our research group (Co-I Brewer, Co-I Bae, and Co-I McClure) has used these tasks to characterize individual differences in working memory and to explore the neural basis of working memory for the past 15 years. The overall goal of this project is to collect and model direct dopamine recordings during stimulus presentation, distractor presentation, and delay periods of canonical working memory tasks to better characterize the role of phasic and tonic dopamine release in working memory.