Striatal cell-type specific stability and reorganization underlying agency and habit

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Behavioral Neuroscience
• Decision Making

Background:

• Adaptive decision-making relies on agency, the understanding that actions lead to specific outcomes.
• Well-learned routines often transition from agency to habit, altering neural control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the roles of dorsomedial striatum (DMS) D1+ and D2/A2A+ neurons in agency and habit formation.
• To understand how these neuronal populations contribute to action-outcome learning and goal-directed behavior.

Main Methods:

• Calcium imaging of DMS D1+ and D2/A2A+ neurons in mice during learning and overtraining.
• Chemogenetic manipulations to assess neuronal function in action-outcome learning and decision-making.

Main Results:

• D1+ neurons showed stable encoding of actions and developed reward outcome encoding.
• A2A+ neurons reorganized their action encoding from initial learning to habit formation.
• Both D1+ and A2A+ neurons support action-outcome learning, but only D1+ neurons are essential for goal-directed decision-making.

Conclusions:

• DMS D1+ and A2A+ neurons exhibit coordinated function in developing agency.
• Cell-type-specific stability and reorganization in these neurons underlie the transition from agency to habit.
• These findings provide insights into the neural circuits governing learning and decision-making.