Dopamine modulation of neural dynamics and behavioral flexibility

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Efficient goal attainment often requires the ability to ignore distractions while remaining responsive to behaviorally relevant stimuli. For instance, a predator must focus on its prey, but not at the expense of mortal injury or the missed opportunity for an easier catch. How does the brain balance the seemingly opposing processes of ignoring distraction and maintaining behavioral flexibility, and why are these affected by drugs that alter dopamine transmission, such as amphetamines? The project proposed here will investigate neural mechanisms involved in these processes in rats to better understand how the human brain might accomplish such functions. The objective is to understand how dopamine affects these processes through its influence on neural signaling in the prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum, key brain regions involved in goal-directed behavior. A particular focus of the project is to assess how dopamine influences neural synchronization and oscillations, which are important features of neural signaling in these structures related to behavioral performance. The approach will be to integrate experimental and computational techniques with the long-term goal of advancing a cell-to-systems theory of dopamine function in decision-making. Neural recordings from behaving rats will be used to quantify systems-level neural dynamics and the effects of dopamine, while recordings from brain slices will be used to identify effects at the cellular level. Computational models and analytical tools from the field of nonlinear dynamics will be used to bridge between cellular and systems levels, and investigate the understudied relationship between neural synchronization, dopamine modulation and behavior. This integrated approach provides numerous opportunities for new discoveries and for training personnel at the interface between biology, physics and computational science.