Dopamine neuron ensembles signal the content of sensory prediction errors
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Abstract
Dopamine neurons respond to errors in predicting value-neutral sensory information. These data, combined with causal evidence that dopamine transients support sensory-based associative learning, suggest that the dopamine system signals a multidimensional prediction error. Yet such complexity is not evident in the activity of individual neurons or population averages. How then do downstream areas know what to learn in response to these signals? One possibility is that information about content is contained in the pattern of firing across many dopamine neurons. Consistent with this, here we show that the pattern of firing across a small group of dopamine neurons recorded in rats signals the identity of a mis-predicted sensory event. Further, this same information is reflected in the BOLD response elicited by sensory prediction errors in human midbrain. These data provide evidence that ensembles of dopamine neurons provide highly specific teaching signals, opening new possibilities for how this system might contribute to learning.
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In rats, VTA dopaminergic neurons fire in response to unexpected changes in the sensory properties of a reinforcer when the relative subjective value is unchanged.
“VTA dopaminergic neurons were shown to fire in response to unexpected changes in the sensory properties of a reinforcer when the relative subjective value was unchanged (e.g. switching the flavor of an equally palatable Kool-Aid reward) (Takahashi et al., 2017; Stalnaker et al., 2019).”
From Ventral striatum dopamine release encodes unique properties of visual stimuli in mice (2023) · cites this paper as Stalnaker et al., 2019
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- Authors
- Stalnaker, T. A., Howard, J. D., Takahashi, Y. K., Gershman, S. J., Kahnt, T., & Schoenbaum, G.
- Affiliations
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Northwestern University (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- University of Maryland, Baltimore (US)
- Corresponding author
- Stalnaker, Thomas A
- Howard, James D
- Kahnt, Thorsten
- Schoenbaum, Geoffrey
- ORCID
- Venue
- eLife
- Publisher
- eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
- Published
- 2019-11-01
- Volume
- 8
- ISSN
- 2050-084X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6839916
- OpenAlex
- W2989158668
- Cited by
- 74
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 12 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 3.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- eLife (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (ZIA-DA000587)
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R01DC015426)
- 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
- dopaminergic neurons, prediction error, neuronal ensembles, population coding, sensory prediction, associative learning, midbrain dopamine, BOLD signal, teaching signal, rats, human
- MeSH terms
- Action Potentials, Animals, Learning, Mesencephalon, Models, Neurological, Rats, Dopaminergic Neurons
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