The role of prefrontal dopamine in the neural dynamics of perceptual decisions

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A fundamental challenge in neuroscience is to understand how neuronal activity creates a subjective experience of our sensory environment. Several brain regions, from primary sensory areas to higher cognitive regions such as the prefrontal cortex, are involved in translating external stimulation into an internal representation and a decision to act. The neuromodulator dopamine has frequently been linked to neuropsychiatric diseases with characteristic disturbances of sensory perception. However, it is still unknown whether dopamine controls how sensory stimuli are subjectively experienced and interpreted.In this project, we will combine targeted perturbations of dopamine neurotransmission in prefrontal cortex using optogenetic techniques with electrophysiological recordings and behavioural analyses in mice performing a perceptual decision making task. Our goal is to provide a spatially and temporally detailed description of how dopamine modulates perceptual judgements on a behavioural and neuronal level. Our experiments will also determine whether dopamine causally contributes to a stable and truthful mental representation of the sensory environment. They could pave the way for a mechanistic understanding of how disrupted dopamine neurotransmission might result in alterations of subjective experience that are a hallmark of neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.