ArticleCortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior2013
Dopamine reverses reward insensitivity in apathy following globus pallidus lesions.
Article in Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
51 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 101 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of alterations in sensorimotor networks following stroke: implications for integration and functional outcomes across recovery stages.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Dopamine Modulates Dynamic Decision-Making during Foraging.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2020Trial
- Apathy and Reduced Voluntary Activity in Older Adults with Parkinson's Disease: Mechanisms, Clinical Assessment, and Rehabilitation Implications.Clinical interventions in aging · 2026Review
- Ursolic Acid-Based Nutraceutical Mitigates Muscle Atrophy and Improves Exercise Performance in Mouse Model of Peripheral Neuropathy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Neurotransmitters' white matter mapping unveils the neurochemical fingerprints of stroke.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Multi-level encoding of reward, effort, and choice across the frontal cortex and basal ganglia during cost-benefit decision-making.Cell reports · 2025Article
- From movement to motivation: a proposed framework to understand the antidepressant effect of exercise.Translational psychiatry · 2024Review
- How does apathy impact exploration-exploitation decision-making in older patients with neurocognitive disorders?npj aging · 2023Article
- Review
- Role of serotonin in modulation of decision-making in Parkinson's disease.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2023Article
- Economic and social values in the brain: evidence from lesions to the human ventromedial prefrontal cortex.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Review
- The neurobiology of apathy in depression and neurocognitive impairment in older adults: a review of epidemiological, clinical, neuropsychological and biological research.Translational psychiatry · 2022Review
- Apathy in Parkinson's Disease: Defining the Park Apathy Subtype.Brain sciences · 2022Review
- Brain microstructural properties related to subjective well-being: diffusion tensor imaging analysis.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2021Article
- Apathy in small vessel cerebrovascular disease is associated with deficits in effort-based decision making.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2021Article
- Mechanisms Underlying Motivational Dysfunction in Schizophrenia.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Review
- Reward sensitivity and action in Parkinson's disease patients with and without apathy.Brain communications · 2021Article
- Gray matter alteration in heroin-dependent men: An atlas-based magnetic resonance imaging study.Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging · 2020Article
- Apathy is associated with reduced precision of prior beliefs about action outcomes.Journal of experimental psychology. General · 2020Article
- Dopamine and reward hypersensitivity in Parkinson's disease with impulse control disorder.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Apathy is a complex, behavioural disorder associated with reduced spontaneous initiation of actions. Although present in mild forms in some healthy people, it is a pathological state in conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease where it can have profoundly devastating effects. Understanding the mechanisms underlying apathy is therefore of urgent concern but this has proven difficult because widespread brain changes in neurodegenerative diseases make interpretation difficult and there is no good animal model. Here we present a very rare case with profound apathy following bilateral, focal lesions of the basal ganglia, with globus pallidus regions that connect with orbitofrontal (OFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) particularly affected. Using two measures of oculomotor decision-making we show that apathy in this individual was associated with reward insensitivity. However, reward sensitivity could be established partially with levodopa and more effectively with a dopamine receptor agonist. Concomitantly, there was an improvement in the patient's clinical state, with reduced apathy, greater motivation and increased social interactions. These findings provide a model system to study a key neuropsychiatric disorder. They demonstrate that reward insensitivity associated with basal ganglia dysfunction might be an important component of apathy that can be reversed by dopaminergic modulation.
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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.