  A $NN\to NN^{\ast}(1440)$ transition potential, based on an effective
quark-quark interaction and a constituent quark cluster model for baryons, is
derived in the Born-Oppenheimer approach. The potential shows significant
differences with respect to those obtained by a direct scaling of the
nucleon-nucleon interaction. From its asymptotic behavior we extract the values
of $\pi NN^{\ast}(1440)$ and $\sigma NN^{\ast}(1440)$ coupling constants in a
particular coupling scheme
