The role of dopamine in anterior cingulate prediction errors

项目摘要（<=30行） 多巴胺信号被认为是学习的关键。它们包括一个基线紧张性放电率， 相性放电模式叠加。信号的相位分量编码预测误差， 就是你预期发生的和实际发生的之间的差别预测误差可能是 用来强化未来的行为如果结果比预期的好，你应该更有可能重复 这种行为在未来。相反，如果结果比预期的更糟，你应该不太可能 重复这种行为。描述多巴胺在强化学习中的作用可能具有重要意义。 对成瘾的影响滥用药物的一个共同特征是它们能够激活多巴胺系统 成瘾理论表明，多巴胺的不适当激活是导致成瘾的原因。 强化成瘾行为。 最近，我们发现额叶的一部分，前扣带皮层（ACC）， 还对预测误差进行编码。前扣带回是额叶多巴胺能输入最重的接受者之一 并且被认为在使奖励能够指导行为选择方面起着重要作用。因此， 问题是这些额叶预测误差信号在多大程度上依赖于多巴胺。的一个问题 回答这个问题的答案是，ACC是相对不可访问的。它位于离地表几毫米的地方 在大脑半球的内侧壁上。然而，电极技术的最新进展 已经导致了一种注射电极的发展， 记录单个神经元的电活动。该项目将使用该设备来确定 多巴胺对ACC编码的影响具体来说，我们将训练两只动物在不同的图片之间做出选择。 根据他们提供奖励的概率。在执行任务期间，我们将同时 记录ACC神经元在输注赋形剂或D1拮抗剂SCH 23390时的活性。我们预测 D1拮抗剂的输注将减弱ACC中的预测误差信号，从而证明， ACC预测误差信号依赖于多巴胺。

Project summary (<=30 lines) Dopamine signals are thought to be critical for learning. They consist of a baseline tonic firing rate on which a phasic pattern of firing is superimposed. The phasic component of the signal encodes a prediction error, which is the difference between what you expected to happen and what actually happened. Prediction errors can be used to reinforce future behavior. If an outcome was better than expected, you should be more likely to repeat that behavior in future. In contrast, if an outcome was worse than anticipated, you should be less likely to repeat that behavior. Delineating the role of dopamine in reinforcement learning could have important implications for addiction. A common feature of drugs of abuse is their ability to activate the dopamine system and theories of addiction suggest that the inappropriate activation of dopamine is what causes the strengthening of addictive behaviors. Recently, we have discovered that neurons in one part of the frontal lobe, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), also encode prediction errors. ACC is one of the heaviest recipients of dopaminergic input in the frontal lobe and is thought to play an important role in enabling rewards to guide the selection of actions. Thus, a critical question is to what extent these frontal lobe prediction error signals depend on dopamine. One problem with answering this question is that ACC is relatively inaccessible. It is located several millimeters from the surface of the brain, on the medial wall of the cerebral hemisphere. However, recent advances in electrode technology have led to the development of an injectrode that can infuse pharmacological agents while simultaneously recording the electrical activity of single neurons. This project will use this device to determine the effect of dopamine on ACC encoding. Specifically, we will train two animals to make choices between pictures that vary in terms of their probability of delivering a reward. During the performance of this task, we will simultaneously record the activity of ACC neurons while infusing either vehicle or the D1 antagonist SCH23390. We predict that infusion of the D1 antagonist will attenuate prediction error signals in ACC, thereby demonstrating that ACC prediction error signals depend on dopamine.