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Review
. 2020 Oct 22:13:1178646920964825.
doi: 10.1177/1178646920964825. eCollection 2020.

The Role of Tryptophan and Tyrosine in Executive Function and Reward Processing

Luca Aquili  1
Affiliations
Review

The Role of Tryptophan and Tyrosine in Executive Function and Reward Processing

Luca Aquili. Int J Tryptophan Res. .

Abstract

The serotonergic precursor tryptophan and the dopaminergic precursor tyrosine have been shown to be important modulators of mood, behaviour and cognition. Specifically, research on the function of tryptophan has characterised this molecule as particularly relevant in the context of pathological disorders such as depression. Moreover, a large body of evidence has now been accumulated to suggest that tryptophan may also be involved in executive function and reward processing. Despite some clear differentiation with tryptophan, the data reviewed in this paper illustrates that tyrosine shares similar functions with tryptophan in the regulation of executive function and reward, and that these processes in turn, rather than acting in isolation, causally influence each other.

Keywords: Tryptophan; cognitive flexibility; dopamine; executive function; reinforcement; reward; serotonin; tyrosine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests:The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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