The DOI matches its Crossref record; 48 of the 48 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
VTA dopamine neuron activity encodes social interaction and promotes reinforcement learning through social prediction error
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
Social interactions are motivated behaviors that, in many species, facilitate learning. However, how the brain encodes the reinforcing properties of social interactions remains unclear. In this study, using in vivo recording in freely moving mice, we show that dopamine (DA) neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) increase their activity during interactions with an unfamiliar conspecific and display heterogeneous responses. Using a social instrumental task, we then show that VTA DA neuron activity encodes social prediction error and drives social reinforcement learning. Thus, our findings suggest that VTA DA neurons are a neural substrate for a social learning signal that drives motivated behavior.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Specifically, research has demonstrated that VTA dopaminergic neurons become activated in rodents engaged in conspecific interactions, and increased activity in these neurons promotes social reinforcement learning (Bariselli et al., 2018; D ¨ olen et al., 2013; Soli ´ e et al., 2022).”
From Convergence of oxytocin and dopamine signalling in neuronal circuits: Insights into the neurobiology of social interactions across species (2024) · cites this paper as Solié et al., 2022
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Specifically, research has demonstrated that VTA dopaminergic neurons become activated in rodents engaged in conspecific interactions, and increased activity in these neurons promotes social reinforcement learning (Bariselli et al., 2018; D ¨ olen et al., 2013; Soli ´ e et al., 2022).”
From Convergence of oxytocin and dopamine signalling in neuronal circuits: Insights into the neurobiology of social interactions across species (2024) · cites this paper as Solié et al., 2022
In the citing paper
“Consistent with an involvement of DA in the reinforcing properties of a social interaction, VTA DA activity increased during lever pressing in a social instrumental operant task and optogenetic inhibition of VTA DA neurons impaired social reinforcement learning [57].”
From Neural circuits regulating prosocial behaviors (2023) · cites this paper as [57]
In the citing paper
“Recent studies have highlighted the necessity and sufficiency of dopamine (DA) neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to promote social interaction (Gunaydin et al., 2014; Solié et al., 2022).”
From Oxytocin neurons mediate the effect of social isolation via the VTA circuits (2022) · cites this paper as Solié et al., 2022
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
A neural substrate of prediction and reward
Schultz, W., Dayan, P., & Montague, P. R. (1997) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.275.5306.1593 · Cited by 9,388
DeepLabCut: markerless pose estimation of user-defined body parts with deep learning
Mathis, A., Mamidanna, P., Cury, K. M., Abe, T., Murthy, V. N., Mathis, M. W., & Bethge, M. (2018) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41593-018-0209-y · Cited by 5,187
Dopamine in motivational control: rewarding, aversive, and alerting
Bromberg-Martin, E. S., Matsumoto, M., & Hikosaka, O. (2010) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2010.11.022 · Cited by 2,396
The social motivation theory of autism
Chevallier, C., Kohls, G., Troiani, V., Brodkin, E. S., & Schultz, R. T. (2012) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2012.02.007 · Cited by 2,072
The hippocampal-VTA loop: controlling the entry of information into long-term memory
Lisman, J. E., & Grace, A. A. (2005) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2005.05.002 · Cited by 1,983
Natural neural projection dynamics underlying social behavior
Gunaydin, L. A., Grosenick, L., Finkelstein, J. C., Kauvar, I. V., Fenno, L. E., Adhikari, A., Lammel, S., Mirzabekov, J. J., Airan, R. D., Zalocusky, K. A., et al. (2014) · Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2014.05.017 · Cited by 1,389
The control of firing pattern in nigral dopamine neurons: burst firing
Grace, A., & Bunney, B. (1984) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.04-11-02877.1984 · Cited by 1,346
Neuron-type-specific signals for reward and punishment in the ventral tegmental area
Cohen, J. Y., Haesler, S., Vong, L., Lowell, B. B., & Uchida, N. (2012) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature10754 · Cited by 1,318
Affective neuroscience of pleasure: reward in humans and animals
Berridge, K. C., & Kringelbach, M. L. (2008) · Psychopharmacology · doi:10.1007/s00213-008-1099-6 · Cited by 1,254
Social reward requires coordinated activity of nucleus accumbens oxytocin and serotonin
Dölen, G., Darvishzadeh, A., Huang, K. W., & Malenka, R. C. (2013) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature12518 · Cited by 1,161
Cited by
Sorted by citations
An amygdala-to-hypothalamus circuit for social reward
Hu, R. K., Zuo, Y., Ly, T., Wang, J., Meera, P., Wu, Y. E., & Hong, W. (2021) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41593-021-00828-2 · Cited by 174
Emotional contagion and prosocial behavior in rodents
Keysers, C., Knapska, E., Moita, M. A. P., & Gazzola, V. (2022) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2022.05.005 · Cited by 130
Song, Q., Wei, A., Xu, H., Gu, Y., Jiang, Y. Q., Dong, N., Zheng, C., Wang, Q., Gao, M., Sun, S., et al. (2024) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41593-023-01519-w · Cited by 133
Social isolation and the brain: effects and mechanisms
Xiong, Y., Hong, H., Liu, C., & Zhang, Y. (2022) · Molecular Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/s41380-022-01835-w · Cited by 137
Detection, processing and reinforcement of social cues: regulation by the oxytocin system
Menon, R., & Neumann, I. D. (2023) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41583-023-00759-w · Cited by 100
Metadata
- Authors
- Solié, C., Girard, B., Righetti, B., Tapparel, M., & Bellone, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Geneva (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Bellone, Camilla
- Venue
- Nature Neuroscience
- Published
- 2021-12-02
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 86-97
- ISSN
- 1097-6256 (ISSN-L)
- 1546-1726
- PMC
- PMC7612196
- OpenAlex
- W3217059373
- Cited by
- 186
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 41 · 2025: 45 · 2024: 45 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 5
- FWCI
- 11.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Nature Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (182326, 150704)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- ventral tegmental area, dopaminergic neurons, social interaction, social learning, neural coding, motivated behavior, conspecific interactions
- MeSH terms
- Social Interaction, Animals, Reinforcement, Psychology, Reward, Ventral Tegmental Area, Mice, Dopaminergic Neurons
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
