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Neural Circuitry of Reward Prediction Error.

ABSTRACT: Dopamine neurons facilitate learning by calculating reward prediction error, or the difference between expected and actual reward. Despite two decades of research, it remains unclear how dopamine neurons make this calculation. Here we review studies that tackle this problem from a diverse set of approaches, from anatomy to electrophysiology to computational modeling and behavior. Several patterns emerge from this synthesis: that dopamine neurons themselves calculate reward prediction error, rather than inherit it passively from upstream regions; that they combine multiple separate and redundant inputs, which are themselves interconnected in a dense recurrent network; and that despite the complexity of inputs, the output from dopamine neurons is remarkably homogeneous and robust. The more we study this simple arithmetic computation, the knottier it appears to be, suggesting a daunting (but stimulating) path ahead for neuroscience more generally.

SUBMITTER: Watabe-Uchida M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6721851 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Neural Circuitry of Reward Prediction Error.

Watabe-Uchida Mitsuko M Eshel Neir N Uchida Naoshige N

Annual review of neuroscience 20170424

Dopamine neurons facilitate learning by calculating reward prediction error, or the difference between expected and actual reward. Despite two decades of research, it remains unclear how dopamine neurons make this calculation. Here we review studies that tackle this problem from a diverse set of approaches, from anatomy to electrophysiology to computational modeling and behavior. Several patterns emerge from this synthesis: that dopamine neurons themselves calculate reward prediction error, rath ...[more]

PMID: 28441114

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