TY - JOUR T1 - Mood-elevating effects of <em>d</em>-amphetamine and incentive salience: the effect of acute dopamine precursor depletion JF - Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience JO - JPN SP - 129 LP - 136 VL - 32 IS - 2 AU - Marco Leyton AU - Marije aan het Rot AU - Linda Booij AU - Glen B. Baker AU - Simon N. Young AU - Chawki Benkelfat Y1 - 2007/03/01 UR - http://jpn.ca/content/32/2/129.abstract N2 - Objective: Midbrain dopamine transmission is thought to regulate responses to rewarding drugs and drug-paired stimuli; however, the exact contribution, particularly in humans, remains unclear. In the present study, we tested whether decreasing dopamine synthesis, as produced by acute phenylalanine/tyrosine depletion (APTD), would alter responses to the stimulant drug, d-amphetamine.Methods: On 3 separate days, 14 healthy men received d-amphetamine (0.3 mg/kg, given orally) plus a nutritionally balanced amino acid mixture, the phenylalanine/tyrosine-deficient mixture or the phenylalanine/tyrosine-deficient mixture followed by the immediate dopamine precursor, l-DOPA (Sinemet, 2 × 100 mg/25 mg). Responses to these treatments were assessed with visual analog scales, the Profile of Mood States, and a computerized Go/No-Go task.Results: d-Amphetamine elicited its prototypical subjective effects, but these were not altered by APTD. In comparison, APTD significantly increased commission errors on the Go/No-Go task and did so uniquely in conditions where subjects were rewarded for making correct responses; this effect of APTD was prevented by l-DOPA.Conclusions: Together these results support the hypothesis that, in healthy men, dopamine is not closely linked to euphorogenic effects of abused substances but does affect the salience of reward-related cues and the ability to respond to them preferentially. ER -