Dorsomedial striatum monitors unreliability of current action policy and probes alternative one via the indirect pathway.

ABSTRACT: Previous studies revealed critical involvement of the striatum in adapting to the environment by actions that anticipate rewards from experiences as a policy. However, it remains unclear how current policy is evaluated to explore more advantageous alternatives. Here, we show that during policy-based sequential actions in a rat reversal task, the dorsomedial striatum plays an essential role in pathway-specific manner. Recording and optical manipulation of the indirect pathway showed that late-onset activity following unrewarded suboptimal action represents a lowered valuation of the current action policy and a heightened bias to try the suboptimal action. The early-onset activity complementarily mediated policy-based suppression of unrewarded action. These results demonstrate the indirect p

SUBMITTER: Rios A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12577698 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature