Causal evidence supporting the proposal that dopamine transients function as temporal difference prediction errors.

ABSTRACT: Reward-evoked dopamine transients are well established as prediction errors. However, the central tenet of temporal difference accounts-that similar transients evoked by reward-predictive cues also function as errors-remains untested. In the present communication we addressed this by showing that optogenetically shunting dopamine activity at the start of a reward-predicting cue prevents second-order conditioning without affecting blocking. These results indicate that cue-evoked transients function as temporal-difference prediction errors rather than reward predictions.

SUBMITTER: Maes EJP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7007380 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature