Seeking insight into dopamine's contribution to motivation and learning, the authors examined dopamine release in the rat nucleus accumbens during adaptive decision-making. Dopamine levels convey a running estimate of available future reward, which is used to decide whether it's worthwhile to engage in a behavioral task. Abrupt fluctuations serve as reward prediction errors, reinforcing behavioral choices.
- Arif A Hamid
- Jeffrey R Pettibone
- Joshua D Berke
