Advances in Dopamine and Cognition
A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Cognitive, Social and Affective Neuroscience".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 May 2026
Special Issue Editor
Interests: cognitive flexibility; dopaminergic system; reinforcement learning; neuropsychi-atric disorders; psychopharmacology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Dopamine is a central neuromodulator traditionally studied for its role in reward and motor function. More recently, however, it has become clear that dopamine also influences higher-order cognitive processes such as attention, learning, memory, motivation, and decision making.
This Special Issue of Brain Sciences aims to highlight recent advances in the field of dopamine and cognition. We welcome original research articles, reviews, and meta-analyses that investigate dopaminergic function using behavioural, pharmacological, neuroimaging, computational, or genetic approaches. Topics may include, but are not limited to, reinforcement learning, cognitive flexibility, working memory, decision making, motivation, neuromodulation, dopaminergic dysfunction in psychiatric or neurological disorders, and individual differences in dopamine-regulated traits. Both human and animal studies are welcome.
We are particularly interested in studies that attempt to explain the mechanisms by which the dopaminergic system influences cognition, or that integrate multiple levels of analysis—from molecular to behavioural—to advance theoretical models of dopamine function.
Dr. Luca Aquili
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- dopaminergic system
- cognitive neuroscience
- reinforcement learning
- neuropsychopharmacology
- motivation and decision making
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