ArticleThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2023
From Prediction to Action: Dissociable Roles of Ventral Tegmental Area and Substantia Nigra Dopamine Neurons in Instrumental Reinforcement.
Article in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sequence termination cues drive automated habit-like strategy via dopamine-mediated processes.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Resolution of anhedonia-like symptoms in patients treated for obesity with tirzepatide: A three-case series.Obesity pillars · 2026Article
- Can the incentive-sensitization theory of addiction incorporate addiction to opioid drugs?Psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Probing biomarkers and clinical utility of reward learning across species using the Probabilistic Reward Task: 20 years of findings.Nature. Mental health · 2026Article
- A comprehensive overview of the biological foundations of ADHD.Bioscience reports · 2026Review
- Dopamine in the ventral and tail of striatum supports global and local evaluation in reward-threat conflict.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Disinhibition of ventral tegmental area during initial punishment learning causes enduring punishment insensitivity.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Sense of agency and decision making.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Superior Colliculus Projections Drive Dopamine Neuron Activity and Movement But Not Value.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Dynamic changes of dopamine neuron activity and plasticity at different stages of negative reinforcement learning.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- VTA dopamine neuron activity produces spatially organized value representations.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Superior colliculus projections drive dopamine neuron activity and movement but not value.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- 20 Years of Aberrant Salience in Psychosis: What Have We Learned?The American journal of psychiatry · 2025Review
- Striatal Gradient in Value-Decay Explains Regional Differences in Dopamine Patterns and Reinforcement Learning Computations.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Sequence termination cues drive habits via dopamine-mediated credit assignment.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Developing algorithmic psychiatry via multi-level spanning computational models.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Review
- Contextual cues facilitate dynamic value encoding in the mesolimbic dopamine system.Current biology : CB · 2025Article
- The Incentive-Sensitization Theory of Addiction 30 Years On.Annual review of psychology · 2025Review
- Impact of supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids after maternal dietary deficiency on adolescent anxiety and microglial morphology.Behavioral neuroscience · 2024Article
- Dopamine neurons drive spatiotemporally heterogeneous striatal dopamine signals during learning.Current biology : CB · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Reward seeking requires the coordination of motor programs to achieve goals. Midbrain dopamine neurons are critical for reinforcement, and their activation is sufficient for learning about cues, actions, and outcomes. Here we examine in detail the mechanisms underlying the ability of ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra (SNc) dopamine neurons to support instrumental learning. By exploiting numerous behavioral tasks in combination with time-limited optogenetic manipulations in male and female rats, we reveal that VTA and SNc dopamine neurons generate reinforcement through separable psychological processes. VTA dopamine neurons imbue actions and their associated cues with motivational value that allows flexible and persistent pursuit, whereas SNc dopamine neurons support time-limited, precise, action-specific learning that is nonscalable and inflexible. This architecture is reminiscent of actor-critic reinforcement learning models with VTA and SNc instructing the critic and actor, respectively. Our findings indicate that heterogeneous dopamine systems support unique forms of instrumental learning that ultimately result in disparate reward-seeking strategies.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.