The functional role of sequentially neuromodulated synaptic plasticity in behavioural learning.

ABSTRACT: To survive, animals have to quickly modify their behaviour when the reward changes. The internal representations responsible for this are updated through synaptic weight changes, mediated by certain neuromodulators conveying feedback from the environment. In previous experiments, we discovered a form of hippocampal Spike-Timing-Dependent-Plasticity (STDP) that is sequentially modulated by acetylcholine and dopamine. Acetylcholine facilitates synaptic depression, while dopamine retroactively converts the depression into potentiation. When these experimental findings were implemented as a learning rule in a computational model, our simulations showed that cholinergic-facilitated depression is important for reversal learning. In the present study, we tested the model's prediction by optogenet

SUBMITTER: Ang GWY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8192019 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature