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Histamine was the first canonical monoamine identified in the mammalian brain, yet arguably remains the least understood in its mechanistic contributions to human behaviour. Using a first-in-class causal probe (H3R inverse agonist pitolisant), we show how elevating histamine shapes offline and online temporal-hippocampal dynamics - sustaining episodic learning-related activity and polarising retrieval computations. Beyond this, histamine adaptively shifts neurocomputational strategy under high working memory load, while stabilising value updates during aversive reinforcement learning. These findings uncover a mechanistically grounded influence of this underexplored system on human neurocomputation, supporting its therapeutic potential in psychiatry.

More information Original publication

DOI

10.1038/s41467-026-73865-9

Type

Journal article

Publication Date

2026-06-02T00:00:00+00:00