Making sense: Dopamine activates conscious self-monitoring through medial prefrontal cortex.
Human brain mapping May 1, 2015 Morten Joensson, Kristine Rømer Thomsen, Lau M Andersen et al. 44 citations
Experiences that become meaningful to the self involve synchronous activity in a paralimbic network of self-awareness and dopaminergic activity, including medial prefrontal and medial parietal/posterior cingulate cortices. Oral administration of 100 mg dopamine improved noetic (conscious) metacognition in minimal self-awareness. In a separate experiment with extended self-awareness, dopamine improved retrieval accuracy of memories of self-judgment (autonoetic metacognition). Magnetoencephalography showed increased power of oscillations preferentially in the medial prefrontal cortex, explaining dopamine's specific effect on explicit self-awareness and autonoetic metacognition.