ArticleThe international journal of neuropsychopharmacology2015
Tryptophan Depletion Promotes Habitual over Goal-Directed Control of Appetitive Responding in Humans.
Article in The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04239339 (Serotonergic Modulation of Cognition, Emotion and Brain Activation in Healthy Volunteers), which is not on this map. Cited by 36 papers.
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.
Serotonergic Modulation of Cognition, Emotion and Brain Activation in Healthy Volunteers
Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 65 citations in OpenAlex.
- Arbitration between model-free and model-based control is not affected by transient changes in tonic serotonin levels.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2024Trial
- Reward and avoidance learning in the context of aversive environments and possible implications for depressive symptoms.Psychopharmacology · 2019Trial
- Acetaminophen enhances the reflective learning process.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2018Trial
- Shifting the balance between goals and habits: Five failures in experimental habit induction.Journal of experimental psychology. General · 2018Trial
- The Serotonin 1B Receptor Modulates Striatal Activity Differentially Based on Behavioral Context.eNeuro · 2026Article
- The serotonin 1B receptor modulates striatal activity differentially based on behavioral context.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Divergent Longitudinal Trajectories and Neurotransmitter Associations of Striatal Subparcellation Spontaneous Activity in Major Depressive Disorder.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- Complementary roles of serotonin and dopamine in model-based learning.Current opinion in behavioral sciences · 2025Article
- Nucleus accumbens deep brain stimulation in adult patients suffering from severe and enduring anorexia nervosa (STIMARS): protocol for a pilot study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Striatal Serotonin Release Signals Reward Value.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Article
- The role of psychosis and clozapine load in excessive checking in treatment-resistant schizophrenia: longitudinal observational study.The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science · 2024Observational
- Comparable roles for serotonin in rats and humans for computations underlying flexible decision-making.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Serotonin and Dopamine Show Different Response Profiles to Acute Stress in the Nucleus Accumbens and Medial Prefrontal Cortex of Rats with Neuropathic Pain.Neurochemical research · 2023Article
- Constitutive depletion of brain serotonin differentially affects rats' social and cognitive abilities.iScience · 2023Article
- Article
- Can Habits Impede Creativity by Inducing Fixation?Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Cholinergic dysfunction in the dorsal striatum promotes habit formation and maladaptive eating.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2020Article
- Goal-Directed and Habitual Control in Smokers.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2020Article
- The Role of Tryptophan and Tyrosine in Executive Function and Reward Processing.International journal of tryptophan research : IJTR · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundOptimal behavioral performance results from a balance between goal-directed and habitual systems of behavioral control, which are modulated by ascending monoaminergic projections. While the role of the dopaminergic system in behavioral control has been recently addressed, the extent to which changes in global serotonin neurotransmission could influence these 2 systems is still poorly understood.
methodsWe employed the dietary acute tryptophan depletion procedure to reduce serotonin neurotransmission in 18 healthy volunteers and 18 matched controls. We used a 3-stage instrumental learning paradigm that includes an initial instrumental learning stage, a subsequent outcome-devaluation test, and a slip-of-action stage, which directly tests the balance between hypothetical goal-directed and habitual systems. We also employed a separate response inhibition control test to assess the behavioral specificity of the results.
resultsAcute tryptophan depletion produced a shift of behavioral performance towards habitual responding as indexed by performance on the slip-of-action test. Moreover, greater habitual responding in the acute tryptophan depletion group was predicted by a steeper decline in plasma tryptophan levels. In contrast, acute tryptophan depletion left intact the ability to use discriminative stimuli to guide instrumental choice as indexed by the instrumental learning stage and did not impair inhibitory response control.
conclusionsThe major implication of this study is that serotonin modulates the balance between goal-directed and stimulus-response habitual systems of behavioral control. Our findings thus imply that diminished serotonin neurotransmission shifts behavioral control towards habitual responding.
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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.