Abstract
Recently, we provided causal evidence that self-regulated dopamine signaling enhanced long-term memory formation in the absence of any external feedback or reward (Ripollés et al., 2016, 2018) if a congruent meaning inferred from semantic context (DA-dependent learning), while DA-signals were absent if no congruent meaning could be inferred (DA-independent learning). Here, we investigated the interaction of self-regulated learning with externally-regulated DA-signalling by providing external performance feedback in the first or second half of trials. We found that removing feedback during DA-dependent learning lowered subsequent recognition rates a day later, whereas recognition remained high in the group which received feedback only in the second half. In contrast, feedback modestly enhanced recognition rates for both groups for DA-independent learning. Our findings suggest that external reinforcers can selectively impair DA-dependent memories if internal DA-dependent processes are not already established and highlights the relevance of self-regulated learning in education to support stable memory formation.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
Author contributions P.V. contributed to analysis, interpretation of data and drafted and revised the manuscript L.S. contributed to design of the work, data acquisition, interpretation of data, drafted and revised the manuscript
E.P. contributed to data acquisition, interpretation of data, and revised the manuscript
P.R. contributed to conception of the work, interpretation of data, and revised the manuscript
A.R.F. contributed to conception of the work, interpretation of data, and revised the manuscript
T.N. contributed to conception and design of the work, interpretation data, and revised the manuscript
