Specialized coding of sensory, motor and cognitive variables in VTA dopamine neurons.

ABSTRACT: There is increased appreciation that dopamine neurons in the midbrain respond not only to reward¹ and reward-predicting cues^1,2, but also to other variables such as the distance to reward³, movements^4-9 and behavioural choices^10,11. An important question is how the responses to these diverse variables are organized across the population of dopamine neurons. Whether individual dopamine neurons multiplex several variables, or whether there are subsets of neurons that are specialized in encoding specific behavioural variables remains unclear. This fundamental question has been difficult to resolve because recordings from large populations of individual dopamine neurons have not been performed in a behavioural task with sufficient complexi

SUBMITTER: Engelhard B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7147811 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature