Phasic dopamine reinforces distinct striatal stimulus encoding in the olfactory tubercle driving dopaminergic reward prediction

Lars-Lennart Oettl, Max Scheller, Carla Filosa, Sebastian Wieland, Franziska Haag, Cathrin Loeb, Daniel Durstewitz, Roman Shusterman, Eleonora Russo () and Wolfgang Kelsch ()
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Lars-Lennart Oettl: Heidelberg University
Max Scheller: Heidelberg University
Carla Filosa: Heidelberg University
Sebastian Wieland: Heidelberg University
Franziska Haag: Heidelberg University
Cathrin Loeb: Heidelberg University
Daniel Durstewitz: Heidelberg University
Roman Shusterman: Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon
Eleonora Russo: Heidelberg University
Wolfgang Kelsch: Heidelberg University

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract The learning of stimulus-outcome associations allows for predictions about the environment. Ventral striatum and dopaminergic midbrain neurons form a larger network for generating reward prediction signals from sensory cues. Yet, the network plasticity mechanisms to generate predictive signals in these distributed circuits have not been entirely clarified. Also, direct evidence of the underlying interregional assembly formation and information transfer is still missing. Here we show that phasic dopamine is sufficient to reinforce the distinctness of stimulus representations in the ventral striatum even in the absence of reward. Upon such reinforcement, striatal stimulus encoding gives rise to interregional assemblies that drive dopaminergic neurons during stimulus-outcome learning. These assemblies dynamically encode the predicted reward value of conditioned stimuli. Together, our data reveal that ventral striatal and midbrain reward networks form a reinforcing loop to generate reward prediction coding.

Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-17257-7

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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17257-7

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