Dopaminergic signaling supports auditory social learning.

ABSTRACT: Explicit rewards are commonly used to reinforce a behavior, a form of learning that engages the dopaminergic neuromodulatory system. In contrast, skill acquisition can display dramatic improvements from a social learning experience, even though the observer receives no explicit reward. Here, we test whether a dopaminergic signal contributes to social learning in naïve gerbils that are exposed to, and learn from, a skilled demonstrator performing an auditory discrimination task. Following five exposure sessions, naïve observer gerbils were allowed to practice the auditory task and their performance was assessed across days. We first tested the effect of an explicit food reward in the observer's compartment that was yoked to the demonstrator's performance during exposure sessions. Naïve obse

SUBMITTER: Paraouty N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8222360 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature