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Published on: February 12, 2017
Neural mechanisms of reward-related motor learning
Jeffery R Wickens1, John N J Reynolds, Brian I Hyland
1Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, School of Medical Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. jeff.wickens@otago.ac.nz
Abstract:
The analysis of the neural mechanisms responsible for reward-related learning has benefited from recent studies of the effects of dopamine on synaptic plasticity. Dopamine-dependent synaptic plasticity may lead to strengthening of selected inputs on the basis of an activity-dependent conjunction of sensory afferent activity, motor output activity, and temporally related firing of dopamine cells. Such plasticity may provide a link between the reward-related firing of dopamine cells and the acquisition of changes in striatal cell activity during learning. This learning mechanism may play a special role in the translation of reward signals into context-dependent response probability or directional bias in movement responses.
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