Exploring dopamine function during naturalistic behavior

项目摘要 动物自发地探索它们的环境，以获得食物，水和住所，以及寻找 伙计们来自环境的反馈，包括获得奖励（如上文所列）或 避免令人厌恶的结果（如遇到捕食者），改变了动物未来的行为。这 学习和适应的形式对生存至关重要，在脊椎动物中，由基底神经节形成， 受到制造多巴胺的神经元的强烈影响。在这里，我们检查多巴胺神经元何时活跃， 在自由探索期间，以及该活动如何受到预期奖励的虚拟获取的影响，或 由特定的运动动作引起的奖赏。我们将比较两种不同的 多巴胺的来源与奖赏信号和执行运动有关， 行动最后，我们将研究多巴胺神经元的活动如何调节其下游靶点， 对运动和未来运动动作的塑造。我们的结果将被整合到一个计算框架中， 用于指导未来对运动控制、多巴胺信号和行为适应的研究。

Project abstract Animals explore their environment spontaneously in order to obtain food, water and shelter, as well as to find mates. Feedback from the environment, including the acquisition of rewards (such as those listed above) or avoiding aversive outcomes (such as encountering a predator), alters the future behavior of the animal. This form of learning and adaptation is essential to survival and, in vertebrates, is shaped by the basal ganglia and strongly influenced by neurons that make dopamine. Here we examine when dopamine neurons are active during free exploration and how that activity is influenced by the virtual acquisition of an expected reward, or a reward triggered by the execution of a specific motor action. We will compare the activity of two different sources of dopamine that have been differentially implicated in signaling reward and in executing motor actions. Lastly, we will examine how the activity of dopamine neurons regulates their downstream targets to sculpt on going and future motor action. Our results will be integrated into a computational framework that will be used to guide future research into motor control, dopamine signaling, and behavioral adaptation.