Serotonin, inhibition, and negative mood

Pavlovian predictions of future aversive outcomes lead to behavioral inhibition, suppression, and withdrawal. There is considerable evidence for the involvement of serotonin in both the learning of these predictions and the inhibitory consequences that ensue, although less for a causal relationship...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS computational biology 2008-02, Vol.4 (2), p.e4-e4
Main Authors: Dayan, Peter, Huys, Quentin J M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
Behavior
Brain - metabolism
Charitable foundations
Depression - metabolism
Depression - psychology
Humans
Inhibition (Psychology)
Learning
Models, Neurological
Models, Psychological
Neurological Disorders
Neuroscience
None
Serotonin
Serotonin - metabolism
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Summary:Pavlovian predictions of future aversive outcomes lead to behavioral inhibition, suppression, and withdrawal. There is considerable evidence for the involvement of serotonin in both the learning of these predictions and the inhibitory consequences that ensue, although less for a causal relationship between the two. In the context of a highly simplified model of chains of affectively charged thoughts, we interpret the combined effects of serotonin in terms of pruning a tree of possible decisions, (i.e., eliminating those choices that have low or negative expected outcomes). We show how a drop in behavioral inhibition, putatively resulting from an experimentally or psychiatrically influenced drop in serotonin, could result in unexpectedly large negative prediction errors and a significant aversive shift in reinforcement statistics. We suggest an interpretation of this finding that helps dissolve the apparent contradiction between the fact that inhibition of serotonin reuptake is the first-line treatment of depression, although serotonin itself is most strongly linked with aversive rather than appetitive outcomes and predictions.
ISSN:1553-7358
1553-734X
1553-7358
DOI:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0040004