Serotonin in Affective Control

Serotonin is a neuromodulator that is extensively entangled in fundamental aspects of brain function and behavior. We present a computational view of its involvement in the control of appetitively and aversively motivated actions. We first describe a range of its effects in invertebrates, endowing s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of neuroscience 2009-06, Vol.32 (1), p.95-126
Main Authors: DAYAN, Peter, HUYS, Quentin J. M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affect - physiology
Animals
Avoidance Learning - physiology
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Brain
Brain - anatomy & histology
Brain - physiology
Emotions - physiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Invertebrates - anatomy & histology
Invertebrates - physiology
Mammals
Mammals - anatomy & histology
Mammals - physiology
Motivation
Neurons
Neuropsychology
Neurotransmission and behavior
Neurotransmitters
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reward
Serotonin - physiology
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Summary:Serotonin is a neuromodulator that is extensively entangled in fundamental aspects of brain function and behavior. We present a computational view of its involvement in the control of appetitively and aversively motivated actions. We first describe a range of its effects in invertebrates, endowing specific structurally fixed networks with plasticity at multiple spatial and temporal scales. We then consider its rather widespread distribution in the mammalian brain. We argue that this is associated with a more unified representational and functional role in aversive processing that is amenable to computational analyses with the kinds of reinforcement learning techniques that have helped elucidate dopamine's role in appetitive behavior. Finally, we suggest that it is only a partial reflection of dopamine because of essential asymmetries between the natural statistics of rewards and punishments.
ISSN:0147-006X
1545-4126
DOI:10.1146/annurev.neuro.051508.135607