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We frequently hear about elderly people who are bilked out of their life savings by impossible schemes. Researchers in Europe examined whether this vulnerability is related to decreases in detection of reward prediction errors (RPEs). Dopamine is hypothesized to be involved in pathways of RPE's two elements — positive effect of a reward and negative effect of the expected value.
Thirty-two older and 22 younger individuals (mean ages, 70 and 25, respectively) completed trials in which they guessed, based on past performance, as to which of two computer images would result in a monetary reward. Before testing, the older group took the dopamine precursor L-DOPA or placebo in crossover fashion.
On placebo, older subjects won less money than young…