Serotonin in affective control

P Dayan, QJM Huys - Annual review of neuroscience, 2009 - annualreviews.org
P Dayan, QJM Huys
Annual review of neuroscience, 2009annualreviews.org
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 …
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.
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