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Acute tryptophan depletion in healthy males attenuates phasic cardiac slowing but does not affect electro-cortical response to negative feedback

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Abstract

Rationale

Recent studies have shown that serotonin might be involved in performance monitoring, although the results have been inconclusive. Inconsistent results might be related to the type of pharmacological manipulation and the used behavioral and physiological measures.

Objectives

The present study aimed at further specifying the role of serotonin in performance monitoring.

Materials and methods

The effect of serotonin on performance monitoring was studied by using acute tryptophan depletion (ATD), a well-known method to transiently lower central serotonin levels. Twenty healthy male volunteers performed a time-estimation task and their event-related brain potential (ERP), behavioral, and cardiac responses to feedback stimuli were measured. Furthermore, subjective mood and amino-acid levels were determined.

Results

As expected, ATD did not affect mood and lowered tryptophan levels. ATD attenuated cardiac slowing to negative feedback but did not affect responses to positive feedback, ERPs, and performance measures.

Conclusions

The data point in the direction of a dissociation between cardiac and electro-cortical responses. Cardiac responses appear to be more sensitive to changes in serotonin metabolism and appear to reflect different aspects of the feedback stimulus. The phasic cardiac response appears to be an important measure that provides additional information about the impact of feedback stimuli and serotonergic functioning.

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Notes

  1. In addition to these analyses, negative feedback followed by a correct adjustment was compared with negative feedback followed by an incorrect adjustment. This analysis revealed a stronger HR deceleration on negative feedback stimuli, which were followed by correct adjustments. This has also been reported in several other studies (van der Veen et al. 2004b; Crone et al. 2003). ATD did not interact with this effect.

  2. To be sure not to miss any interesting effects, we performed some additional analyses. First, we changed the interval in which we determined the maximal difference between negative and positive feedback or the mean amplitude for negative feedback. We used both a longer interval (200–450 ms) and a later interval (300–450 ms). Furthermore, we also examined effects for different electrodes (Fz, Pz). Finally, we examined P3 amplitude by computing the maximal amplitude on Pz in an interval between 250 and 500 ms after onset of positive or negative feedback. All these additional analyses did not reveal any significant effects of ATD.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a TOP grant (912-02-050) from ZonMW-NWO. The authors have no financial relationship with the sponsor. The experiment described in the present paper complies with the current laws of the Netherlands, the country in which it was performed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Erasmus Medical Centre, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Frederik M. van der Veen & Gabry W. Mies

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Maurits W. van der Molen

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, University of Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Elisabeth A. Evers

Authors
  1. Frederik M. van der Veen
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  2. Gabry W. Mies
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  3. Maurits W. van der Molen
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  4. Elisabeth A. Evers
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Correspondence to Frederik M. van der Veen.

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van der Veen, F.M., Mies, G.W., van der Molen, M.W. et al. Acute tryptophan depletion in healthy males attenuates phasic cardiac slowing but does not affect electro-cortical response to negative feedback. Psychopharmacology 199, 255–263 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-008-1176-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-008-1176-x

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