Dopaminergic And Noradrenergic Modulation Of Risk Decision Making In The Prefrontal Cortex

Decision Making is a normal mental process in daily life. Risk Decision Making is one of Decision Making action made by decision maker after judging condition and probability of profit, balancing costs and benefits. Studies revealed that the prefrontal cortex?PFC?, so called Value Computing Center, played a key role in balancing costs and benefits. And dopamine could influence risky choice. Previous research in our lab showed that adrenergic system in the PFC participated in regulation cognitive function, including learning, memory and attention. However, how these two systems in the PFC act on Risk Decision Making is still elusive. To confirm which subtype of adrenergic and dopamine receptor is responsible for changing ‘risk option' of risk decision making behavior, here, we used a special designed apparatus for training rats to perform the ‘Risk Decision Making Task', and bilateral intracranially injected dopamine D1 receptor, D2 receptor, adrenergic ?₂ receptor agonist or antagonist into the PFC.We found that?1? Rats preferred ‘risk option' during Risk Decision Making Task;?2? D1 receptor agonist in the PFC would increase the Win-Stay behavior and reduce the Lose-Shift behavior without altering the rate of ‘risk option', D1 receptor antagonist reduced the rate of ‘risk option', but had no effect on the changing either Win-Stay behavior or Lose-Shift behavior;?3? D2 receptor agonist and antagonist could enhance the ratio of choosing ‘risk option', but D2 receptor agonist reduced the level of Win-Stay while D2 receptor antagonist had an opposite effect;?4??₂ receptor agonist and antagonist would reduce the ‘risk option' probability, while ?₂ receptor agonist reduced Win-Stay behavior, ?₂ receptor antagonist had no effect on the changing either Win-Stay behavior or Lose-Shift behavior.These results suggested that rats preferred ‘risk option' during Risk Decision Making Task. D1 receptor, D2 receptor and ?₂ receptor agonist or antagonist in the PFC could influence risk decision making with different strategies. And we found that D2 receptor agonist and antagonist affect the level of Win-Stay driven by changing the sensitivity to reward, so as to change the risk choice behavior.