2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Neural mechanisms underlying the motivation to overcome disappointment
| Project/Area Number |
20K16474
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| Research Institution | Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University |
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Principal Investigator |
サポン ギデオン 沖縄科学技術大学院大学, 神経生物学研究ユニット, ポストドクトラルスカラー (00837198)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
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| Keywords | dopamine / reward learning |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In the natural environment, adapting to variations in foraging and courtship, which are highly dynamic and often not immediately successful, are critical for survival. In the face of unexpected events, having the motivation to overcome disappointments and to pursue one's goals is an important ability that ensures survival in a changing environment. However, the neural mechanisms governing such motivation has been less explored. Here, this study introduces a novel rat behavior task that strongly induces the motivation to overcome disappointment (i.e. omission of reward), combined with calcium imaging technique at single-cell resolution. With this approach, it has been possible to measure the calcium activity of many dopamine neurons simultaneously and thus, suitable for solving the questions in this study.
Overall, this study aims to clarify the central neural mechanisms responsible for overcoming the omission of reward, focusing on the nature of the activity of the new type of DN whose response to reward omission is increased. As a result, this study will fill a major gap in our understanding of dopamine function in the brain, and on the overall neural mechanisms of reward learning.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Our in vivo imaging approach has revealed that a subpopulation of dopamine neurons in a part of the midbrain increased their activity in response to the omission of an expected reward.
By employing this technique, we have successfully recorded the activity of many dopamine neurons simultaneously, from the early to later stages of learning.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Following the identification of new dopamine neurons, we plan to reveal how the activity of these neurons is generated through the learning process. To do this, we will examine what happens during the early stage of learning and what the change from early to the later stage of learning is, and to what exact attributes the dopamine neuron is responding. To this end, it is necessary to continuously measure the activity of as many dopamine neurons as possible at cellular resolution.
Further, to explore how this information is transmitted to the striatum, we aim to image dopamine activity in the nucleus accumbens.
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| Causes of Carryover |
For the implementation of additional experiments, participation in academic conferences and submission of papers for publication.
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