Lateral habenula as a source of negative reward signals in dopamine neurons

Masayuki Matsumoto and Okihide Hikosaka ()
Additional contact information
Masayuki Matsumoto: Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-4435, USA
Okihide Hikosaka: Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-4435, USA

Nature, 2007, vol. 447, issue 7148, 1111-1115

Abstract: Rewarding behaviour The involvement of dopaminergic neurons in motor symptoms is evident from their role in Parkinson's disease. Yet the neurons that release dopamine carry signals related to rewards, not body movements. As a solution to this puzzle, recent theories suggest that the reward-related dopamine signals are used for learning of motor behaviours. Until now it has been unclear how dopamine neurons acquire the reward-related signals. Now in an experiment in rhesus monkeys performing a visually guided task for reward, Masayuki Matsumoto and Okihide Hikosaka show that a small brain area called the lateral habenula controls dopamine neurons by inhibiting them and thereby suppressing less rewarding eye movements. This discovery opens up possibilities for new research on the links between emotion, motivation and motor behaviours.

Date: 2007
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature05860 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:447:y:2007:i:7148:d:10.1038_nature05860

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature05860

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().