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得和整合信息，以便做出决定。另外随着 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， 他们的决策过程。我们通过挑战小鼠来观察这种决策过程， 使用变化的和概率性的环境信息来选择运动动作以实现水奖励。 这些任务涉及纹状体，并引发动态多巴胺信号，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分析运动动作，同时 观察背侧和腹侧纹状体的双侧活动，以了解行为特征， 环境和奖励历史在动态决策过程中编码在纹状体中。我们的预测 强调了纹状体多巴胺、SPN和PKA活性半球不对称的潜在重要性， 动作选择、运动行为和选择的随机性。我们将进一步测试这些预测使用 活动的时间锁定扰动，以了解这些信号与正在进行的 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.