Dopaminergic action prediction errors serve as a value-free teaching signal.

ABSTRACT: Choice behaviour of animals is characterized by two main tendencies: taking actions that led to rewards and repeating past actions^1,2. Theory suggests that these strategies may be reinforced by different types of dopaminergic teaching signals: reward prediction error to reinforce value-based associations and movement-based action prediction errors to reinforce value-free repetitive associations^3-6. Here we use an auditory discrimination task in mice to show that movement-related dopamine activity in the tail of the striatum encodes the hypothesized action prediction error signal. Causal manipulations reveal that this prediction error serves as a value-free teaching signal that supports learning by reinforcing repeated associations. Computational modelling and experime

SUBMITTER: Greenstreet F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12310545 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature