Trial reportPsychopharmacology2008
Dopamine D2 receptor occupancy levels of acute sulpiride challenges that produce working memory and learning impairments in healthy volunteers.
Trial report in Psychopharmacology, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 61 citations in OpenAlex.
- The dopaminergic basis of human behaviors: A review of molecular imaging studies.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2009Pooled it
- Individual differences in dopamine-related traits influence mood effects of dopamine D2-antagonist and antidepressant treatment expectations.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Trial
- Methylphenidate undermines or enhances divergent creativity depending on baseline dopamine synthesis capacity.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Trial
- No effect of a dopaminergic modulation fMRI task by amisulpride and L-DOPA on reward anticipation in healthy volunteers.Psychopharmacology · 2021Trial
- Computational modelling reveals contrasting effects on reinforcement learning and cognitive flexibility in stimulant use disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder: remediating effects of dopaminergic D2/3 receptor agents.Psychopharmacology · 2019Trial
- Dopamine and memory dedifferentiation in aging.NeuroImage · 2017Trial
- Trial
- Amplified Striatal Responses to Near-Miss Outcomes in Pathological Gamblers.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2016Trial
- Abnormal modulation of reward versus punishment learning by a dopamine D2-receptor antagonist in pathological gamblers.Psychopharmacology · 2015Trial
- Dopamine D2-receptor blockade enhances decoding of prefrontal signals in humans.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2015Trial
- Dopamine modulates the neural representation of subjective value of food in hungry subjects.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2014Trial
- Role of dopamine D2 receptors in human reinforcement learning.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2014Trial
- Human cognitive flexibility depends on dopamine D2 receptor signaling.Psychopharmacology · 2011Trial
- Memory encoding and dopamine in the aging brain: a psychopharmacological neuroimaging study.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2010Trial
- The dopamine D2 receptor antagonist sulpiride modulates striatal BOLD signal during the manipulation of information in working memory.Psychopharmacology · 2009Trial
- Sex-specific effects of the atypical antipsychotic risperidone on performance in a risky decision-making task.Behavioural brain research · 2027Article
- Successful antipsychotic dose tapering leading to better cognition in patients with remitted psychosis: Results of Guided Antipsychotic Reduction to Reach Minimum Effective Dose (GARMED) trial.Psychological medicine · 2025Article
- Striatal dopamine can enhance both fast working memory, and slow reinforcement learning, while reducing implicit effort cost sensitivity.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Multiple extreme overdose of antipsychotics with minimal side effects: A case report.Clinical case reports · 2024Article
- Dopamine Alters the Effect of Brain Stimulation on Decision-Making.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleIn humans, the effects of dopaminergic agents administered systemically are less clear-cut than studies in experimental animals where agents can be applied locally in the brain. DA receptor occupancy could clearly contribute to the variance in findings, although this is typically not known.
objectivesThe objective of the study was to measure the DA D2 receptor occupancy of sulpiride 200 and 400 mg and relate this to changes in task performance. MATERIALS AND
methodsPositron emission tomography scans were acquired in ten healthy volunteers with [11C]-raclopride. Striatal drug occupancy was calculated as the percentage change in binding potential between placebo and drug scans. All volunteers received placebo and sulpiride 400 mg, with four receiving 200 mg on a third session. Immediate post-scan neuropsychological assessment included working memory and learning tasks.
resultsStriatal sulpiride occupancy was approximately 17% (200 mg) and approximately 28% (400 mg), with similar occupancy within the midbrain. Neuropsychological data analysis was restricted to the higher dose (n = 10). Accuracy on the spatial working memory and spatial learning tasks was impaired after the drug, and the former was inversely related to occupancy.
conclusionDoses of sulpiride typically used in human cognitive studies produced low levels of DA D2 receptor occupancy compared to that considered efficacious in the treatment of schizophrenia. The levels of occupancy were sufficient to replicate impairments on a spatial working memory task and impair spatial learning. The relationship between occupancy and working memory was suggestive of presynaptic effects, although the precise mechanism underlying the impairment will require studies of wider ranges of occupancy within and outside of the striatum.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.