Cited by 388Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on BehaviorNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesNeuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research

Serotonergic neurons signal reward and punishment on multiple timescales

Open access
Cohen, Jeremiah Y, Amoroso, Mackenzie W, Uchida, Naoshige·2015·eLife

Abstract

Serotonin's function in the brain is unclear. One challenge in testing the numerous hypotheses about serotonin's function has been observing the activity of identified serotonergic neurons in animals engaged in behavioral tasks. We recorded the activity of dorsal raphe neurons while mice experienced a task in which rewards and punishments varied across blocks of trials. We 'tagged' serotonergic neurons with the light-sensitive protein channelrhodopsin-2 and identified them based on their responses to light. We found three main features of serotonergic neuron activity: (1) a large fraction of serotonergic neurons modulated their tonic firing rates over the course of minutes during reward vs punishment blocks; (2) most were phasically excited by punishments; and (3) a subset was phasically excited by reward-predicting cues. By contrast, dopaminergic neurons did not show firing rate changes across blocks of trials. These results suggest that serotonergic neurons signal information about reward and punishment on multiple timescales.

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Crossref · 10.7554/elife.06346

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  • Single-unit recordings in head-fixed mice revealed heterogeneous responses of DR serotonin neurons to reward and punishment.

    “single-unit recordings in head-fixed mice revealed heterogeneous responses of DR serotonin neurons to reward and punishment (Cohen et al., 2015).”

    From Anatomically defined and functionally distinct dorsal raphe serotonin sub-systems (2018) · cites this paper as Cohen et al., 2015

  • Accumulating evidence points to physiological and molecular heterogeneity within the DR serotonin system.

    “Accumulating evidence points to physiological and molecular heterogeneity within the DR serotonin system (Calizo et al., 2011; Cohen et al., 2015; Fernandez et al., 2016; Okaty et al., 2015).”

    From Anatomically defined and functionally distinct dorsal raphe serotonin sub-systems (2018) · cites this paper as Cohen et al., 2015

  • Previously described heterogeneous physiological responses of DR serotonin neurons to reward and punishment could result from recordings from projection-specific subpopulations.

    “These findings suggest that previously described heterogeneous physiological responses of DR serotonin neurons to reward and punishment (Cohen et al., 2015) could result from recordings from projection-specific subpopulations.”

    From Anatomically defined and functionally distinct dorsal raphe serotonin sub-systems (2018) · cites this paper as Cohen et al., 2015

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Authors
Cohen, J. Y., Amoroso, M. W., & Uchida, N.
Affiliations
Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
Cohen, Jeremiah Y
Venue
eLife
Published
2015-02-25
Volume
4
ISSN
2050-084X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2127567317
Cited by
388
References
123
Citations by year
2026: 23 · 2025: 39 · 2024: 38 · 2023: 32 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 37 · 2020: 31 · 2019: 33 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 40 · 2016: 44 · 2015: 18
FWCI
20.43
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • eLife (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
  • Helen Hay Whitney Foundation (HHWF) (HHMI Fellowship from the HHWF)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) (HHMI Fellowship from the HHWF)
  • National Science Foundation (NSF) (Graduate Research Fellowship)
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH) (R01MH095953, R01MH101207)
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 › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
Keywords
serotonin, serotonergic neurons, dorsal raphe nucleus, reward, punishment, dopamine, channelrhodopsin-2, reward prediction, mice
MeSH terms
Action Potentials, Animals, Behavior, Animal, Conditioning, Psychological, Cues, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Neural Inhibition, Punishment, Reward, Serotonin, Task Performance and Analysis, Time Factors, Serotonergic Neurons

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