Temporal Specificity of Reward Prediction Errors Signaled by Putative Dopamine Neurons in Rat VTA Depends on Ventral Striatum

Yuji K. Takahashi, Angela J. Langdon, Yael Niv, Geoffrey Schoenbaum

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

78 Scopus citations

Abstract

Dopamine neurons signal reward prediction errors. This requires accurate reward predictions. It has been suggested that the ventral striatum provides these predictions. Here we tested this hypothesis by recording from putative dopamine neurons in the VTA of rats performing a task in which prediction errors were induced by shifting reward timing or number. In controls, the neurons exhibited error signals in response to both manipulations. However, dopamine neurons in rats with ipsilateral ventral striatal lesions exhibited errors only to changes in number and failed to respond to changes in timing of reward. These results, supported by computational modeling, indicate that predictions about the temporal specificity and the number of expected reward are dissociable and that dopaminergic prediction-error signals rely on the ventral striatum for the former but not the latter.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)182-193
Number of pages12
JournalNeuron
Volume91
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 6 2016

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Neuroscience

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