Opioid Modulation of Value-Based Decision-Making in Healthy Humans

Neuropsychopharmacology. 2017 Aug;42(9):1833-1840. doi: 10.1038/npp.2017.58. Epub 2017 Mar 15.

Abstract

Modifying behavior to maximize reward is integral to adaptive decision-making. In rodents, the μ-opioid receptor (MOR) system encodes motivation and preference for high-value rewards. Yet it remains unclear whether and how human MORs contribute to value-based decision-making. We reasoned that if the human MOR system modulates value-based choice, this would be reflected by opposite effects of agonist and antagonist drugs. In a double-blind pharmacological cross-over study, 30 healthy men received morphine (10 mg), placebo, and the opioid antagonist naltrexone (50 mg). They completed a two-alternative decision-making task known to induce a considerable bias towards the most frequently rewarded response option. To quantify MOR involvement in this bias, we fitted accuracy and reaction time data with the drift-diffusion model (DDM) of decision-making. The DDM analysis revealed the expected bidirectional drug effects for two decision subprocesses. MOR stimulation with morphine increased the preference for the stimulus with high-reward probability (shift in starting point). Compared to placebo, morphine also increased, and naltrexone reduced, the efficiency of evidence accumulation. Since neither drug affected motor-coordination, speed-accuracy trade-off, or subjective state (indeed participants were still blinded after the third session), we interpret the MOR effects on evidence accumulation efficiency as a consequence of changes in effort exerted in the task. Together, these findings support a role for the human MOR system in value-based choice by tuning decision-making towards high-value rewards across stimulus domains.

Publication types

  • Controlled Clinical Trial

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Analgesics, Opioid / pharmacology*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Cross-Over Studies
  • Decision Making / drug effects*
  • Decision Making / physiology
  • Double-Blind Method
  • Humans
  • Models, Neurological
  • Morphine / pharmacology*
  • Motor Activity / drug effects
  • Naltrexone / pharmacology
  • Narcotic Antagonists / pharmacology
  • Reaction Time / drug effects
  • Receptors, Opioid, mu / metabolism
  • Reward*
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Analgesics, Opioid
  • Narcotic Antagonists
  • Receptors, Opioid, mu
  • Naltrexone
  • Morphine