A selective role for dopamine in reward learning

By Shelly B. Flagel, J. Clark, Terry E. Robinson, L. Mayo, Alayna Czuj, I. Willuhn, Christina A. Akers, S. Clinton, P. Phillips, Huda Akil. Nature, 2010

633 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Individuals make choices and prioritize goals using complex processes that assign value to rewards and associated stimuli. During Pavlovian learning, previously neutral stimuli that predict rewards can acquire motivational properties, becoming attractive and desirable incentive stimuli. However, whether a cue acts solely as a predictor of reward, or also serves as an incentive stimulus, differs between individuals. Thus, individuals vary in the degree to which cues bias choice and potentially promote maladaptive behaviour. Here we use rats that differ in the incentive motivational properties they attribute to food cues to probe the role of the neurotransmitter dopamine in stimulus–reward learning. We show that intact dopamine transmission is not required for all forms of learning in which reward cues become effective predictors. Rather, dopamine acts selectively in a form of stimulus–reward learning in which incentive salience is assigned to reward cues. In individuals with a propensity for this form of learning, reward cues come to powerfully motivate and control behaviour. This work provides insight into the neurobiology of a form of stimulus–reward learning that confers increased susceptibility to disorders of impulse control.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/38476c39379a177d3b95fa22125a1a7f09116670

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Molecular Biology

Citations in the corpus

GABA Neurons of the VTA Drive Conditioned Place Aversion (2012, background): “, 2008) to rats (Flagel et al., 2011), it is generally accepted that DA neuron firing codes for the prediction error of reward.”