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Research papers on Dopamine, reward and motivation

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  1. Dissociable dopamine dynamics for learning and motivation.

    Ali Mohebi, Jeffrey R. Pettibone, Arif A. Hamid, et al. · 2019 · Nature · 643 citations

    The dopamine projection from ventral tegmental area (VTA) to nucleus accumbens (NAc) is critical for motivation to work for rewards and reward-driven learning. How dopamine supports both functions is unclear. Dopamine cell spiking can encode prediction errors, which are vital learning signals in computational theories of adaptive behaviour. By contrast, dopamine release ramps up as animals approach rewards, mirroring reward expectation. This mismatch might reflect differences in behavioural tasks, slower changes in dopamine cell spiking or spike-independent modulation of dopamine release. Here we compare spiking of identified VTA dopamine cells with NAc dopamine release in the same decision-

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  3. Dopamine, Updated: Reward Prediction Error and Beyond

    Talia N. Lerner, A. Holloway, Jillian L. Seiler · 2020 · Current opinion in neurobiology · 141 citations

    Dopamine neurons have been intensely studied for their roles in reinforcement learning. A dominant theory of how these neurons contribute to learning is through the encoding of a reward prediction error (RPE) signal. Recent advances in dopamine research have added nuance to RPE theory by incorporating the ideas of sensory prediction error, distributional encoding, and belief states. Further nuance is likely to be added shortly by convergent lines of research on dopamine neuron diversity. Finally, a major challenge is to reconcile RPE theory with other current theories of dopamine function to account for dopamine’s role in movement, motivation, and goal-directed planning.

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  4. Association of Elevated Reward Prediction Error Response With Weight Gain in Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa

    Marisa Deguzman, M. Shott, Tony T. Yang, et al. · 2017 · The American journal of psychiatry · 87 citations

    Objective Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric disorder of unknown etiology. Understanding associations between behavior and neurobiology is important in treatment development. Using a novel monetary reward task during functional magnetic resonance brain imaging, the authors tested how brain reward learning in adolescent anorexia nervosa changes with weight restoration. Method Female adolescents with anorexia nervosa (N=21; mean age, 15.2 years [SD=2.4]) underwent functional MRI (fMRI) before and after treatment; similarly, healthy female control adolescents (N=21; mean age, 16.4 years [SD=1.9]) underwent fMRI on two occasions. Brain function was tested using the reward prediction error constru

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  5. Dopamine transients follow a striatal gradient of reward time horizons

    Ali Mohebi, Wei Wei, Lilian Pelattini, et al. · 2024 · Nature Neuroscience · 67 citations

    Animals make predictions to guide their behavior and update those predictions through experience. Transient increases in dopamine (DA) are thought to be critical signals for updating predictions. However, it is unclear how this mechanism handles a wide range of behavioral timescales—from seconds or less (for example, if singing a song) to potentially hours or more (for example, if hunting for food). Here we report that DA transients in distinct rat striatal subregions convey prediction errors based on distinct time horizons. DA dynamics systematically accelerated from ventral to dorsomedial to dorsolateral striatum, in the tempo of spontaneous fluctuations, the temporal integration of prior

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  6. Activity of a direct VTA to ventral pallidum GABA pathway encodes unconditioned reward value and sustains motivation for reward

    Wen-Liang Zhou, Kristen Kim, Farhan Ali, et al. · 2022 · Science Advances · 39 citations

    Dopamine signaling from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) plays critical roles in reward-related behaviors, but less is known about the functions of neighboring VTA GABAergic neurons. We show here that a primary target of VTA GABA projection neurons is the ventral pallidum (VP). Activity of VTA-to-VP–projecting GABA neurons correlates consistently with size and palatability of the reward and does not change following cue learning, providing a direct measure of reward value. Chemogenetic stimulation of this GABA projection increased activity of a subset of VP neurons that were active while mice were seeking reward. Optogenetic stimulation of this pathway improved performance in a cue-reward ta

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  7. Dopamine promotes instrumental motivation, but reduces reward-related vigour

    John P Grogan, Timothy R Sandhu, Michele T Hu, et al. · 2020 · eLife · 32 citations

    We can be motivated when reward depends on performance, or merely by the prospect of a guaranteed reward. Performance-dependent (contingent) reward is instrumental, relying on an internal action-outcome model, whereas motivation by guaranteed reward may minimise opportunity cost in reward-rich environments. Competing theories propose that each type of motivation should be dependent on dopaminergic activity. We contrasted these two types of motivation with a rewarded saccade task, in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). When PD patients were ON dopamine, they had greater response vigour (peak saccadic velocity residuals) for contingent

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  8. Seeking motivation and reward: Roles of dopamine, hippocampus, and supramammillo-septal pathway

    Andrew J. Kesner, Coleman B. Calva, S. Ikemoto · 2022 · Progress in neurobiology · 28 citations

    Reinforcement learning and goal-seeking behavior are thought to be mediated by midbrain dopamine neurons. However, little is known about neural substrates of curiosity and exploratory behavior, which occur in the absence of clear goal or reward. This is despite behavioral scientists having long suggested that curiosity and exploratory behaviors are regulated by an innate drive. We refer to such behavior as information-seeking behavior and propose 1) key neural substrates and 2) the concept of environment prediction error as a framework to understand information-seeking processes. The cognitive aspect of information-seeking behavior, including the perception of salience and uncertainty, invol

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  9. A mismatch between striatal cholinergic pauses and dopaminergic reward prediction errors

    Mariana Duhne, Ali Mohebi, Kyoungjun Kim, et al. · 2024 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 25 citations

    Movement, motivation and reward-related learning depend strongly on striatal dopamine and acetylcholine. These neuromodulators each regulate the other, and disturbances to their coordinated signals contribute to human disorders ranging from Parkinson’s Disease to depression and addiction. Pauses in the firing of cholinergic interneurons (CINs) are thought to coincide with pulses in dopamine release that encode reward prediction errors (RPEs), together shaping synaptic plasticity and thereby learning. However, such models are based upon recordings from unidentified neurons, and do not incorporate the distinct characteristics of striatal subregions. Here we compare the firing of identified, in

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  10. Selective encoding of reward predictions and prediction errors by globus pallidus subpopulations

    M. Farries, T. W. Faust, Ali Mohebi, et al. · 2023 · Current biology : CB · 24 citations

    SUMMARY Basal ganglia circuits help guide and invigorate actions using predictions of future reward (values). Within the basal ganglia, the globus pallidus pars externa (GPe) may play an essential role in aggregating and distributing value information. We recorded from the GPe in unrestrained rats performing both Pavlovian and instrumental tasks to obtain rewards, and distinguished neuronal subtypes by their firing properties across the wake/sleep cycle and optogenetic tagging. In both tasks the parvalbumin-positive (PV+), faster-firing “Prototypical” neurons showed strong, sustained modulation by value, unlike other subtypes including the “Arkypallidal” cells that project back to striatum.

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  11. Negative symptoms, striatal dopamine, and model-free reward decision-making in schizophrenia.

    F. Brandl, F. Knolle, M. Avram, et al. · 2022 · Brain : a journal of neurology · 24 citations

    Negative symptoms, such as lack of motivation or social withdrawal, are highly prevalent and debilitating in patients with schizophrenia. Underlying mechanisms of negative symptoms are incompletely understood, thereby preventing the development of targeted treatments. We hypothesized that in patients with schizophrenia during psychotic remission, impaired influences of both model-based and model-free reward predictions on decision-making ('reward prediction influence', RPI) underlie negative symptoms. We focused on psychotic remission since psychotic symptoms might confound reward-based decision-making. Moreover, we hypothesized that impaired model-based/model-free RPIs depend on alterations

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  12. Distinct dynamics and intrinsic properties in ventral tegmental area populations mediate reward association and motivation

    Jordan E Elum, Eric R. Szelenyi, Barbara Juarez, et al. · 2024 · Cell reports · 21 citations

    Ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons regulate reward-related associative learning and reward-driven motivated behaviors, but how these processes are coordinated by distinct VTA neuronal subpopulations remains unresolved. Here we examine the neural correlates of reward-related prediction-error, action, cue, and outcome encoding as well as effort exertion and reward anticipation during reward-seeking behaviors. We compare the contribution of two primarily dopaminergic and largely non-overlapping VTA subpopulations, all VTA dopamine neurons, and VTA GABAergic neurons of the mouse midbrain to these processes. The dopamine subpopulation that projects to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) core p

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  13. Dopamine firing plays a dual role in coding reward prediction errors and signaling motivation in a working memory task

    Stefania Sarno, Manuel Beirán, J. Falcó-Roget, et al. · 2022 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 13 citations

    Significance Recent studies have confirmed the role of dopamine firing in reward prediction error, even under perceptual uncertainty. However, little is known about dopamine behavior during the use of working memory or its role in motivation to work for reward. Here, we investigated these issues in a discrimination task. Fast dopamine responses reflected a perceptual bias while remaining consistent with the reward prediction error hypothesis. When the bias increased task difficulty, motivation positively correlated with both performance and dopamine activity. In addition, dopamine slowly ramped up in a motivation-dependent way during the working memory period. Characterizing dopamine neurons

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  16. Reward prediction-errors weighted by cue salience produces addictive behaviors in simulations, with asymmetrical learning and steeper delay discounting

    Shivam Kalhan, M. Garrido, R. Hester, et al. · 2023 · bioRxiv · 4 citations

    Dysfunction in learning and motivational systems are thought to contribute to addictive behaviours. Previous models have suggested that dopaminergic roles in learning and motivation could produce addictive behaviours through pharmacological manipulations that provide excess dopaminergic signalling towards these learning and motivational systems. Redish 2004 suggested a role based on dopaminergic signals of value prediction error, while Zhang et al. 2009 suggested a role based on dopaminergic signals of motivation. Both these models present significant limitations. They do not explain the reduced sensitivity to drug-related costs/negative consequences, the increased impulsivity generally foun

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  17. DOPAMINE, SEROTONIN, AND THE PURSUIT OF BALANCE: NEUROBIOLOGICAL AND ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVES ON MOTIVATION – A NARRATIVE REVIEW

    U. Jaffer, Eisya Sofea Hamidi Izwan, N. Azimi, et al. · 2024 · International Journal of Education, Psychology and Counseling · 3 citations

    In recent decades, research has emphasised the vital roles of serotonin and dopamine in regulating human motivation, cognition, and behaviour. This narrative review synthesises studies on how these neurotransmitters affect reward-based learning, decision-making, physical activity, and physiological factors, including sleep and appetite. Dopamine facilitates reward prediction, reinforcement, and task engagement, while serotonin contributes to mood regulation, impulse control, and stress management. When functioning harmoniously, they drive goal-directed behaviours; however, imbalances can lead to conditions such as binge eating, impulsive aggression, and fatigue. Additionally, Islamic perspec

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  18. Midbrain dopamine firing activity codes reward expectation and motivation in a parametric working memory task

    Stefania Sarno, Manuel Beirán, Gabriel Diaz-deLeon, et al. · 2020 · bioRxiv · 3 citations

    Little is known about how dopamine (DA) neuron firing rates behave in cognitively demanding decision-making tasks. We investigated midbrain DA activity in monkeys performing a vibrotactile frequency discrimination task that required comparing two frequencies presented sequentially in time. We found that DA activity was involved in reward prediction, motivation and working memory (WM). Further, DA phasic responses to the stimuli were greatly affected by a contraction bias. They were also related to motivated behavior on a trial-by-trial basis, exhibiting a larger engagement in more difficult trials. Otherwise, dopamine WM activity was neither tuned to the initial stored frequency nor affected

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  20. The angiotensin antagonist Losartan shifts social reward motivation and punishment sensitivity via modulating midbrain-striato-frontal circuits

    Xinqi Zhou, Ting Xu, Yixu Zeng, et al. · 2021 · 1 citations

    Background Social deficits and dysregulations in dopaminergic midbrain-striato-frontal circuits represent transdiagnostic symptoms across psychiatric disorders. Animal models suggest that modulating interactions between the dopamine and renin-angiotensin system with the angiotensin receptor antagonist Losartan (LT) can modulate learning and reward-related processes. We have therefore determined the behavioral and neural effects of LT on social reward and punishment processing in humans. Methods A pre-registered randomized double-blind placebo-controlled between-subject pharmacological design was combined with a social incentive delay fMRI paradigm during which subjects could avoid social pun

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  22. An overview of reward prediction error and its links with dopamine

    Tianxiang Yao · 2024 · Theoretical and Natural Science · 1 citations

    Reward prediction error (RPE) refers to the discrepancy between expected and actual rewards received during an event, signaling the difference between what was predicted and what actually happened. Dopaminergic neuron encodes RPE signals in the brain, and is responsible for updating reward expectations and influencing decision-making processes. The relationship between RPE and dopamine has led to research in understanding reward-driven learning and its implications on cognition and behavior. In this review, I will provide an overview of the principles, and task models used to quantify RPE. I will also discuss about the neural mechanisms underlying RPE generation, with a particular focus on t

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  23. The psychedelic, DOI, increases dopamine release in nucleus accumbens to predictable rewards and reward cues

    David A. Martin, Angel M Delgado, Donna J. Calu · 2024 · bioRxiv

    Psychedelics produce lasting therapeutic responses in neuropsychiatric diseases suggesting they may disrupt entrenched associations and catalyze learning. Here, we examine psychedelic effects on dopamine signaling in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) core, a region extensively linked to reward learning, motivation, and drug-seeking. We measure phasic dopamine transients following acute psychedelic administration during well learned Pavlovian tasks in which sequential cues predict rewards. We find that the psychedelic 5-HT2A/2C agonist, DOI, increases dopamine signaling to rewards and proximal reward cues but not to the distal cues that predict these events. We determine that the elevated dopamine

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