Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Nov 1;28(11):3894-3907.
doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhx253.

Latent-Profile Analysis Reveals Behavioral and Brain Correlates of Dopamine-Cognition Associations

Martin Lövdén  1 , Nina Karalija  2   3 , Micael Andersson  3   4 , Anders Wåhlin  2 , Jan Axelsson  2   3 , Ylva Köhncke  1 , Lars S Jonasson  2   3   5 , Anna Rieckman  2   3 , Goran Papenberg  1 , Douglas D Garrett  6   7 , Marc Guitart-Masip  1 , Alireza Salami  1 , Katrine Riklund  2   3 , Lars Bäckman  1 , Lars Nyberg  2   3   4 , Ulman Lindenberger  6   7   8
Affiliations

Latent-Profile Analysis Reveals Behavioral and Brain Correlates of Dopamine-Cognition Associations

Martin Lövdén et al. Cereb Cortex. .

Abstract

Evidence suggests that associations between the neurotransmitter dopamine and cognition are nonmonotonic and open to modulation by various other factors. The functional implications of a given level of dopamine may therefore differ from person to person. By applying latent-profile analysis to a large (n = 181) sample of adults aged 64-68 years, we probabilistically identified 3 subgroups that explain the multivariate associations between dopamine D2/3R availability (probed with 11C-raclopride-PET, in cortical, striatal, and hippocampal regions) and cognitive performance (episodic memory, working memory, and perceptual speed). Generally, greater receptor availability was associated with better cognitive performance. However, we discovered a subgroup of individuals for which high availability, particularly in striatum, was associated with poor performance, especially for working memory. Relative to the rest of the sample, this subgroup also had lower education, higher body-mass index, and lower resting-state connectivity between caudate nucleus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. We conclude that a smaller subset of individuals induces a multivariate non-linear association between dopamine D2/3R availability and cognitive performance in this group of older adults, and discuss potential reasons for these differences that await further empirical scrutiny.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mean (SE) profiles of cognitive performance and 11C-raclopride BPND for the three-class solution. EM = Episodic Memory; WM = Working Memory; HC = Hippocampus.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean (SE) total grey matter volume (A), mean (SE) cerebral blood flow in total grey matter (B), and mean (SE) total burden of white matter hyperintensities (C) as a function of class.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mean (SE) connectivity at rest between activity in left (A) and right (B) dorsal caudate nucleus and regions-of-interest in the fronto-parietal network as a function of class. L = Left; R = Right; DLPFC = DorsoLateral Prefrontal Cortex; aPAR = anterior Parietal lobe; aPFC = anterior Prefrontal Cortex; ACC = Anterior Cingulate Cortex.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Mean (SE) activity (2-back vs. 1-back and 3-back vs. 1-back) averaged across the regions of the frontoparietal network as a function of class.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alakurtti K, Johansson JJ, Joutsa J, Laine M, Backman L, Nyberg L, Rinne JO. Longterm test-retest reliability of striatal and extrastriatal dopamine D2/3 receptor binding: study with [(11)C]raclopride and high-resolution PET. Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism. 2015;35:1199–1205. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arnsten AF. Catecholamine regulation of the prefrontal cortex. J Psychopharmacol. 1997;11:151–162. - PubMed
    1. Arnsten AF, Cai JX, Murphy BL, Goldman-Rakic PS. Dopamine D1 receptor mechanisms in the cognitive performance of young adult and aged monkeys. Psychopharmacology. 1994;116:143–151. - PubMed
    1. Ashburner J. A fast diffeomorphic image registration algorithm. Neuroimage. 2007;38:95–113. - PubMed
    1. Ashburner J, Friston K. Unified segmentation. Neuroimage. 2005;26:839–851. - PubMed

Publication types