Risky Dopamine
Source: Biological Psychiatry
The study by Sugam et al. () is remarkable in several respects. It is one of the very few neurophysiological studies dealing with risky rewards. It assessed the changes in dopamine concentration in the core of nucleus accumbens, one of the main components of the brain's reward system. Whereas several brain lesion and inactivation studies have described behavioral alterations of decision making under risk, this study is aiming toward a mechanistic neuronal account of the influence of risk on reward choices. The data demonstrate risk sensitivity of dopamine concentration changes in parallel with behavioral risk preferences, suggesting that dopamine reward value coding is subjective rather than objective.