Test-retest reliability of dopaminergic fPET and fMRI measures during reward processing
Schlosser G., Handschuh PA., Murgaš M., Graf S., Milz C., Klug S., Falb P., Schmidt C., Eggerstorfer B., Briem E., Mayerweg A., Artmeier L., Godbersen GM., Nics L., Rasul S., Hacker M., Hahn A., Lanzenberger R., Reed MB.
Reward processing is essential to human brain function, with dopamine signalling in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) as a key element. The monetary incentive delay task is widely studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), measuring indirect hemodynamic changes. Functional positron emission tomography (fPET) with 6-[¹⁸F]FDOPA directly quantifies dopamine synthesis, enabling dynamic assessment during task performance within a single scan. We investigated the reliability of 6-[¹⁸F]FDOPA fPET and blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) fMRI during a modified monetary incentive delay task in 25 (10 female; age 24.6 ± 6.1 years) healthy participants across two PET/MRI sessions. Intraclass correlation coefficients and coefficients of variance were computed for BOLD beta estimates and striatal dopamine synthesis (Ki) at 30 s and 2 s resolutions in the caudate, putamen and NAcc. 6-[¹⁸F]FDOPA Ki estimates showed fair to good reliability in the NAcc and putamen at rest (ICC = 0.47–0.66), fair reliability during the win condition in the caudate and putamen (ICC = 0.46–0.57), but poor reliability across the loss condition in all regions (ICC = 0.11–0.39). Conversely, fMRI beta showed good reliability in the NAcc during feedback and in the caudate during feedback loss (ICC = 0.61–0.67), but fair reliability elsewhere (ICC = 0.4–0.46) except for poor reliability in the caudate during cue loss (ICC = 0.26). These findings indicate that both methods achieve comparable reliability but in different target areas, with the molecular specificity of fPET offering dynamic assessment of dopaminergic function. Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT06675851. EudraCT Number: 2019-004880-33.