While memory encoding and consolidation processes have been linked with dopaminergic signaling for a long time, the role of dopamine in episodic memory retrieval remained mostly unexplored. Based on previous observations of striatal activity during memory retrieval, we used pharmacological functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the effects of dopamine on retrieval performance and metacognitive memory confidence in healthy humans. Dopaminergic modulation by the D2 antagonist haloperidol administered acutely during the retrieval phase improved recognition accuracy of previously learned pictures significantly and was associated with increased activity in the substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area, locus coeruleus, hippocampus, and amygdala during retrieval. In contrast, confidence for new decisions was impaired by unsystematically increased activity of the striatum across confidence levels and restricted range of responsiveness in frontostriatal networks under haloperidol. These findings offer new insights into the mechanisms underlying memory retrieval and metacognition and provide a broader perspective on the presence of memory problems in dopamine-related diseases and the treatment of memory disorders.

中文翻译：

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多巴胺是一把双刃剑：多巴胺能调节可增强记忆检索性能，但会损害元认知。

尽管记忆编码和巩固过程与多巴胺能信号传导联系了很长时间，但多巴胺在间歇性记忆恢复中的作用仍未得到充分探讨。基于以前在记忆检索过程中纹状体活动的观察结果，我们使用药理学功能磁共振成像来研究多巴胺对健康人的检索表现和元认知记忆信心的影响。在检索阶段急性给予D2拮抗剂氟哌啶醇的多巴胺能调节可显着提高先前学习图像的识别准确度，并且与检索过程中黑质/腹侧被盖区，蓝斑轨迹，海马和杏仁核的活性增加有关。相比之下，在氟哌啶醇的作用下，跨置信度水平的纹状体活动非系统性地增加，以及在额窦网中的响应范围受到限制，损害了对新决定的信心。这些发现为记忆检索和元认知的潜在机制提供了新的见解，并为多巴胺相关疾病中记忆问题的存在和记忆障碍的治疗提供了更广阔的视野。