TY - JOUR
T1 - The role of opioid transmission in music-induced pleasure
AU - Mas-Herrero, Ernest
AU - Ferreri, Laura
AU - Cardona, Gemma
AU - Zatorre, Robert J.
AU - Pla-Juncà, Francesc
AU - Antonijoan, Rosa María
AU - Riba, Jordi
AU - Valle, Marta
AU - Rodriguez-Fornells, Antoni
N1 - © 2022 The Authors. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of New York Academy of Sciences.
PY - 2023/2
Y1 - 2023/2
N2 - Studies conducted in rodents indicate a crucial role of the opioid circuit in mediating objective hedonic reactions to primary rewards. However, it remains unclear whether opioid transmission is also essential to experience pleasure with more abstract rewards, such as music. We addressed this question using a double-blind within-subject pharmacological design in which opioid levels were up- and downregulated by administering an opioid agonist (oxycodone) and antagonist (naltrexone), respectively, before healthy participants (n = 21) listened to music. Participants also performed a monetary incentive delay (MID) task to control for the effectiveness of the treatment and the specificity of the effects. Our results revealed that the pharmacological intervention did not modulate subjective reports of pleasure, nor the occurrence of chills. On the contrary, psychophysiological (objective) measures of emotional arousal, such as skin conductance responses (SCRs), were bidirectionally modulated in both the music and MID tasks. This modulation specifically occurred during reward consumption, with greater pleasure-related SCR following oxycodone than naltrexone. These findings indicate that opioid transmission does not modulate subjective evaluations but rather affects objective reward-related psychophysiological responses. These findings raise new caveats about the role of the opioidergic system in the modulation of pleasure for more abstract or cognitive forms of rewarding experiences, such as music.
AB - Studies conducted in rodents indicate a crucial role of the opioid circuit in mediating objective hedonic reactions to primary rewards. However, it remains unclear whether opioid transmission is also essential to experience pleasure with more abstract rewards, such as music. We addressed this question using a double-blind within-subject pharmacological design in which opioid levels were up- and downregulated by administering an opioid agonist (oxycodone) and antagonist (naltrexone), respectively, before healthy participants (n = 21) listened to music. Participants also performed a monetary incentive delay (MID) task to control for the effectiveness of the treatment and the specificity of the effects. Our results revealed that the pharmacological intervention did not modulate subjective reports of pleasure, nor the occurrence of chills. On the contrary, psychophysiological (objective) measures of emotional arousal, such as skin conductance responses (SCRs), were bidirectionally modulated in both the music and MID tasks. This modulation specifically occurred during reward consumption, with greater pleasure-related SCR following oxycodone than naltrexone. These findings indicate that opioid transmission does not modulate subjective evaluations but rather affects objective reward-related psychophysiological responses. These findings raise new caveats about the role of the opioidergic system in the modulation of pleasure for more abstract or cognitive forms of rewarding experiences, such as music.
U2 - 10.1111/nyas.14946
DO - 10.1111/nyas.14946
M3 - Article
C2 - 36514207
SN - 0077-8923
VL - 1520
SP - 105
EP - 114
JO - Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
JF - Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
IS - 1
ER -