Electrical-Smile-636 t1_ithjeoe wrote
Reply to comment by Volcic-tentacles in Exploring a new environment helps boost dopamine levels which are projected to the hippocampus, decreasing the threshold for learning. However, in older people, the novelty of a new environment doesn’t boost memory as much as it does in younger people. by Wagamaga
As the first author of the paper I would like to straighten out that we did not manipulate or measure dopamine in this study (we conducted it in a Science Museum in Amsterdam, so we used purely behavioral measures). Also note that the notion of hippocampal dopamine underlying the effects of novelty comes from a robust literature in animals (mostly studies that do use pharmacological manipulations and neuroscientific measures). The formulation of "dopamine projecting to the hippocampus" dates back to an influential theory by Lisman & Grace 2005, which is why this wording is still prevalent in the literature.
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