ArticleMolecular psychiatry2025
A neurometabolic mechanism involving dmPFC/dACC lactate in physical effort-based decision-making.
Article in Molecular psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- All Is Relative-A Call for Considering "Physiologically Informed" Control Conditions to Improve the Mechanistic Understanding of the Effects of Physical Exercise on Cognition.Scandinavian journal of psychology · 2026Review
- Brain mitochondria as key drivers of cognition and behaviour.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- A Hitchhiker's Guide to Physical and Cognitive Effort.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Review
- Shared and distinct features of common effort-based decision-making paradigms and their relation to brain structure and neuropsychiatric conditions: An integrated narrative review.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Review
- The allostatic triage model of psychopathology (ATP Model): How reallocation of brain energetic resources under stress elicits psychiatric symptoms.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2025Review
- Providing alternative fuel for the brain in anorexia nervosa: a review of the literature on ketones and their effects on metabolism and the brain.Translational psychiatry · 2025Review
- Neurometabolic predictors of mental effort in the frontal cortex.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Intrinsic health as a foundation for a science of health.Science advances · 2025Review
- Lactate links exercise to synaptic protection and cognitive enhancement in Alzheimer's disease models.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Neurocomputational Mechanisms of Sense of Agency: Literature Review for Integrating Predictive Coding and Adaptive Control in Human-Machine Interfaces.Brain sciences · 2025Review
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
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Abstract
Motivation levels vary across individuals, yet the underlying mechanisms driving these differences remain elusive. The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dmPFC/dACC) and the anterior insula (aIns) play crucial roles in effort-based decision-making. Here, we investigate the influence of lactate, a key metabolite involved in energy metabolism and signaling, on decisions involving both physical and mental effort, as well as its effects on neural activation. Using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy and functional MRI in 63 participants, we find that higher lactate levels in the dmPFC/dACC are associated with reduced motivation for physical effort, a relationship mediated by neural activity within this region. Additionally, plasma and dmPFC/dACC lactate levels correlate, suggesting a systemic influence on brain metabolism. Supported by path analysis, our results highlight lactate's role as a modulator of dmPFC/dACC activity, hinting at a neurometabolic mechanism that integrates both peripheral and central metabolic states with brain function in effort-based decision-making.
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