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Dopamine Neurons Respond to Errors in the Prediction of Sensory Features of Expected Rewards.

Hot Off the Press! – January 2018.

A figure from this study

A figure from this study

Associative learning is driven by fundamental instructive or teaching signals that reflect errors in the prediction of rewards and other events. Previously dopamine neurons in the midbrain that project widely in the brain have been shown to signal these errors only for value. Here NIDA researchers show that these value errors are a special case of a more general error signal represented in the firing of midbrain dopamine neurons. This signal reflects errors in the prediction of sensory events or features. This expansion of the model puts this critical system in a position to support a much wider array of real-world behaviors than was previously possible.

Publication Information

Takahashi, Yuji K; Batchelor, Hannah M; Liu, Bing; Khanna, Akash; Morales, Marisela; Schoenbaum, Geoffrey

Dopamine Neurons Respond to Errors in the Prediction of Sensory Features of Expected Rewards. Journal Article

In: Neuron, vol. 95, no. 6, pp. 1395–1405, 2017, ISSN: 1097-4199 (Electronic); 0896-6273 (Linking).

Abstract | Links

@article{Takahashi:2017aa,
title = {Dopamine Neurons Respond to Errors in the Prediction of Sensory Features of Expected Rewards.},
author = {Yuji K Takahashi and Hannah M Batchelor and Bing Liu and Akash Khanna and Marisela Morales and Geoffrey Schoenbaum},
url = {https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28910622},
doi = {10.1016/j.neuron.2017.08.025},
issn = {1097-4199 (Electronic); 0896-6273 (Linking)},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-09-13},
journal = {Neuron},
volume = {95},
number = {6},
pages = {1395--1405},
address = {Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA. Electronic address: yuji.takahashi@nih.gov.},
abstract = {Midbrain dopamine neurons have been proposed to signal prediction errors as defined in model-free reinforcement learning algorithms. While these algorithms have been extremely powerful in interpreting dopamine activity, these models do not register any error unless there is a difference between the value of what is predicted and what is received. Yet learning often occurs in response to changes in the unique features that characterize what is received, sometimes with no change in its value at all. Here, we show that classic error-signaling dopamine neurons also respond to changes in value-neutral sensory features of an expected reward. This suggests that dopamine neurons have access to a wider variety of information than contemplated by the models currently used to interpret their activity and that, while their firing may conform to predictions of these models in some cases, they are not restricted to signaling errors in the prediction of value.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

Close

Midbrain dopamine neurons have been proposed to signal prediction errors as defined in model-free reinforcement learning algorithms. While these algorithms have been extremely powerful in interpreting dopamine activity, these models do not register any error unless there is a difference between the value of what is predicted and what is received. Yet learning often occurs in response to changes in the unique features that characterize what is received, sometimes with no change in its value at all. Here, we show that classic error-signaling dopamine neurons also respond to changes in value-neutral sensory features of an expected reward. This suggests that dopamine neurons have access to a wider variety of information than contemplated by the models currently used to interpret their activity and that, while their firing may conform to predictions of these models in some cases, they are not restricted to signaling errors in the prediction of value.

Close

  • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28910622
  • doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2017.08.025

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