古典的条件付けにおけるドーパミン放出に寄与する側坐核シェル領域の機能解明

奖励诱导多巴胺神经元放电率的短暂增加。当奖励是可预测的时，这种奖励诱导的多巴胺反应会减弱。由预期奖励引起的多巴胺反应的减少是卡敏阻断效应（KBE）所必需的。KB指的是阻断一个线索与另一个线索之间的联系的形成。（阻塞线索）和时间上连续的奖励，如果在条件反射过程中，该提示与另一提示同时呈现在上一个财政年度进行的研究发现，在过去的一年里，复合线索条件化阶段对多巴胺神经元的抑制性输入在KBE中起重要作用。这表明，多巴胺神经元的输出可能控制了对多巴胺神经元的抑制性输入，从而减少了对预期奖励的多巴胺反应。然而，这种控制需要在阻断线索的条件作用过程中学习。在本财政年度，在阻断线索的条件反射过程中，丘脑核的输出受到抑制。这种操作消除了知识经济，支持了从先前进行的实验中得出的推论。研究还发现，只有符号追踪者，而不是目标追踪者，表现出知识经济。正在进行：i）撰写论文，以完成我的博士学位;和ii）撰写论文，包括上述结果。

Rewards induce a transient increase in dopamine neuron firing rate. This reward induced dopamine response is diminished when the reward is predictable. The reduction in the dopamine response evoked by predicted rewards is necessary for the Kamin Blocking Effect (KBE).KB refers to the blocking of the formation of an association between a cue (blocked cue) and a temporally contiguous reward if, during the conditioning procedure, the cue is presented simultaneously with another cue (blocking cue) which has previously been conditioned using the same reward.Research conducted in the previous fiscal year found that output of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and inhibitory inputs to the dopamine neurons during the compound cue conditioning phase played an important role in KBE. This suggested that the output of the accumbens may exert control over the inhibitory input to the dopamine neurons to produce the reduction in dopamine response to the predicted reward. However, such control would need to be learnt during the conditioning of the blocking cue. In this fiscal year, the output of the nucleus accumbens was inhibited during the conditioning of the blocking cue. This manipulation abolished the KBE, supporting the inference drawn from the previously conducted experiments. It was also found that only sign trackers, and not goal trackers, exhibit the KBE.Ongoing: i) Writing of a thesis towards the completion of my PhD degree; and ii) Writing of papers encompassing the foregoing results.