Dopamine medication ‘can reverse prediction errors in older people’

Age-related issues in decision-making can be reversed through the use of medication widely administered for the treatment of Parkinson's Disease, a new study has established.

Research carried out by the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging and published in the Nature Neuroscience journal today (March 25th) has established that through the use of drugs that boost the level of dopamine in the brain, the effect of such impairments can be controlled.

After they reach the age of 70, adults naturally become worse than younger people at making decisions due to the alteration in brain processes that means individuals are less able to learn from their experiences.

This is particularly prevalent in the process of making a decision based on the reward this will provide, as the performance of the nucleus accumbens – which interprets the difference between anticipated reward and actual reward – deteriorates.

However, dopamine helps manage and reduce instances of such "prediction errors".

Dr Rumana Chowdhury, leader of the study, commented: "When we treated older people who were particularly bad at making decisions with a drug that increases dopamine in the brain, their ability to learn from rewards improved to a level comparable to somebody in their 20s."