Dopamine builds and reveals reward-associated latent behavioral attractors
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Phasic variations in dopamine levels are interpreted as a teaching signal reinforcing rewarded behaviors. However, behavior also depends on the motivational, neuromodulatory effect of phasic dopamine. In this study, we reveal a neurodynamical principle that unifies these roles in a recurrent network-based decision architecture embodied through an action-perception loop with the task space, the MAGNet model. Dopamine optogenetic conditioning in mice was accounted for by an embodied network model in which attractors encode internal goals. Dopamine-dependent synaptic plasticity created "latent" attractors, to which dynamics converged, but only locally. Attractor basins were widened by dopamine-modulated synaptic excitability, rendering goals accessible globally, i.e. from distal positions. We validated these predictions optogenetically in mice: dopamine neuromodulation suddenly and specifically attracted animals toward rewarded locations, without off-target motor effects. We thus propose that motivational dopamine reveals dopamine-built attractors representing potential goals in a behavioral landscape.
Source: Nature Communications
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Inserm, Université de Montpellier, Sorbonne Université, Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine, Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle, Neurosciences Paris-Seine, Institut Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, Laboratoire Plasticité du Cerveau, ESPCI Paris
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $6,790
Awards: Memory in living systems: an integrated approach, G135602435, G2094490816, Neuronal Substrates and Pathways underlying Nicotine and Stress interplay relevant for psychiatric disorders, G5139982773, Impact of Prolonged Nicotine Exposure on the Adolescent and Adult Brain with Relevance for Psychiatric Disorders, G6752661911, G7060453185, Light on intracellular signaling Events shAping functional netwoRks in spatial mappiNg, Neural basis of variability in reward-seeking strategies and consequence for nicotine susceptibility
OpenAlex ID: W4404311200