BACKGROUND Highly complex tasks generally benefit from increases in cognitive control, which has been linked to dopamine. Yet, the same amount of control may actually be detrimental in tasks with low complexity so that the task-dependent allocation of cognitive control resources (also known as "metacontrol") is key to expedient and adaptive behavior in various contexts. METHODS Given that dopamine D1 and D2 receptors have been suggested to exert opposing effects on cognitive control, we investigated the impact of 2 single nucleotide polymorphisms in the DRD1 (rs4532) and DRD2 (rs6277) genes on metacontrol in 195 healthy young adults. Subjects performed 2 consecutive tasks that differed in their demand for control (starting with the less complex task and then performing a more complex task rule). RESULTS We found carriers of the DRD1 rs4532 G allele to outperform noncarriers in case of high control requirements (i.e., reveal a better response accuracy), but not in case of low control requirements. This was confirmed by Bayesian analyses. No effects of DRD2 rs6277 genotype on either task were evident, again confirmed by Bayesian analyses. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that higher DRD1 receptor efficiency improves performance during high, but not low, control requirements, probably by promoting a "D1 state," which is characterized by highly stable task set representations. The null findings for DRD2 signaling might be explained by the fact that the "D2 state" is thought to enhance flexible switching between task set representations when our task only featured 1 task set at any given time.

中文翻译：

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DRD1和DRD2受体在变化复杂性水平下的反应选择中的作用：对元控制过程的影响。

背景技术高度复杂的任务通常受益于与多巴胺有关的认知控制的增加。但是，相同的控制量实际上可能对复杂性较低的任务有害，因此认知控制资源的任务依赖型分配（也称为“元控制”）是在各种情况下进行方便和自适应行为的关键。方法鉴于已建议多巴胺D1和D2受体对认知控制产生相反的作用，我们研究了195名健康的年轻人中DRD1（rs4532）和DRD2（rs6277）基因中的2个单核苷酸多态性对元控制的影响。受试者执行了2个连续的任务，这些任务的控制要求不同（从不太复杂的任务开始，然后执行更复杂的任务规则）。结果我们发现DRD1 rs4532 G等位基因的携带者在高控制要求的情况下表现优于非携带者（即，显示出更好的响应精度），而在低控制要求的情况下则没有。贝叶斯分析证实了这一点。贝叶斯分析再次证实了DRD2 rs6277基因型对这两项任务均无影响。结论我们的发现表明，较高的DRD1受体效率可以在较高但不是较低的控制要求下改善性能，可能是通过促进“ D1状态”来实现的，该状态的特征是高度稳定的任务集表示。当我们的任务在任何给定时间仅以1个任务集为特征时，认为DRD2信号的无效发现可能是因为“ D2状态”被认为可以增强任务集表示之间的灵活切换。