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

神经科学的一个基本挑战是了解神经元活动如何创造我们感觉环境的主观体验。从初级感觉区域到高级认知区域（如前额叶皮层），有几个大脑区域参与将外部刺激转化为内部表征和行动决定。神经调节剂多巴胺经常与具有特征性感觉障碍的神经精神疾病有关。然而，它仍然是未知的，是否多巴胺控制感觉刺激是如何主观经验和interpretation.In本项目中，我们将结合联合收割机有针对性的干扰多巴胺神经传递在前额叶皮层使用光遗传学技术与电生理记录和行为分析在小鼠执行知觉决策任务。我们的目标是提供一个空间和时间上的详细描述，多巴胺如何调节知觉判断的行为和神经元水平。我们的实验还将确定多巴胺是否对感觉环境的稳定和真实的心理表征有因果关系。他们可以为从机制上理解多巴胺神经传递中断如何导致主观体验的改变铺平道路，而主观体验是精神分裂症等神经精神疾病的标志。

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.