Intracranial Electrical Control of Cognitive Preferences

描述（由申请人提供）：多巴胺在强化学习中的作用的现有计算模型现在发展得相当好。这些模型对中脑多巴胺神经元放电率的变化如何改变受试者对行动的价值做出了具体的预测。虽然以前的单神经元记录研究在很大程度上验证了这些计算模型，但很少有人尝试使用这些神经元的直接电操作来检验这些理论。这是特别相关的，因为电操纵脑深部核现在被用来治疗一些精神疾病-包括药物成瘾。 在这个提议中，我们描述了一系列旨在测试假设的实验，即如果中脑多巴胺神经元的放电率以现有计算理论指定的方式以亚秒级精度进行操作，这可能会以高度精确的方式深刻地调节行为偏好。如果是这样的话，这一发现将表明一系列关于深部脑刺激对药物成瘾影响的实验。目前的建议旨在为未来的此类实验奠定理论和实验基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Existing computational models of dopamine's role in reinforcement learning are now quite well developed. These models make specific predictions about how changes in the firing rates of midbrain dopamine neurons should change the values subjects place on actions. While previous single neuron recording studies have largely validated these computational models, there have been very few efforts to use direct electrical manipulations of these neurons to examine these theories. This is of particular relevance because electrical manipulations of deep brain nuclei are now being used to treat a number of psychiatric disorders - including drug addiction. In this proposal, we describe a series of experiments aimed at testing the hypothesis that if the firing rates of midbrain dopamine neurons are manipulated with sub-second precision in a manner specified by existing computational theories, this may profoundly regulate behavioral preferences in a highly precise way. If this is the case, this finding would suggest a series of translationally-relevant experiments on the effects of deep brain stimulation on drug addiction. The current proposal seeks to lay the theoretical and experimental foundations for such experiments in the future.