The function of dopamine and striatal neurons in guiding behavior in uncertain environments

项目摘要 动物必须随着时间的推移获取并整合信息，才能做出决定。此外，由于 环境的变化，动物必须使用新的信息来更新以前的世界模型，并修改 他们的决策过程。我们通过挑战老鼠来观察它们的决策过程 使用变化的和概率的环境信息来选择发动机动作来实现水奖励。 这些任务涉及纹状体，并激发动态的多巴胺信号，这被认为是至关重要的 决策过程。在这里，我们将使用现代方法来分析同步运动的动作 观察双侧纹状体背侧和腹侧的活动，以了解行为的特点， 在动态决策过程中，环境和奖赏历史被编码在纹状体中。我们的预测 强调大脑半球不对称对纹状体多巴胺、SPN和PKA活性的潜在重要性 动作选择、运动行为和选择的随机性。我们将使用USE来进一步测试这些预测 活动的时间锁定扰动，以了解这些信号与正在进行的和 未来的行为。

Project abstract Animals must acquire and integrate information over time in order to make decisions. In addition, as the environment changes, animals must use new information to update previous models of the world and revise their decision making process. We observe such decision making processes in mice by challenging them to use changing and probabilistic environmental information to choose a motor action to achieve water rewards. These tasks engage the striatum and evoke dynamic dopamine signaling which is thought to be crucial to the decision making process. Here we will use modern methods of analysis of motor action with simultaneous observation of bilateral activity in the dorsal and ventral striatum to understand how features of behavior, the environment, and reward history are encoded in the striatum during dynamic decision making. Our predictions highlight the potential importance of hemispheric asymmetry in striatal dopamine, SPN and PKA activity in action selection, motor behavior and stochasticity of choice. We will further test these predictions using use time locked perturbations of activity to understand the causal relationship of these signals to ongoing and future behavior.