Scholarlink

<p>In classical Pavlovian conditioning, it is well-established that midbrain dopamine neurons respond to conditioned stimuli (CS) that predict a reward. However, how the dopamine neurons associate a neutral CS to a reward remains unknown. Here, we show that in male rats and in both male and female mice, the superior colliculus (SC) develops neuronal responses to a visual CS during conditioning, which in turn drive the responses of dopamine neurons. Visual responses in the SC were only potentiated when a behaviorally meaningful time interval separated the visual stimulus and reward. Potentiation also required the convergence of visual, dopamine and serotonin inputs to the SC. Importantly, blocking potentiation of the visual response was sufficient to suppress the dopamine responses following a CS. These results reveal a mechanism for how the brain forms associations between unconditioned stimuli and behaviorally meaningful visual information during classical conditioning.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

The superior colliculus gates dopamine responses to conditioned stimuli in visual classical conditioning

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月29日

查看全文
  • Yan-Feng Zhang,
  • Jean-Philippe Dufour,
  • Peter Zatka-Haas,
  • Peter Redgrave,
  • Melony J. Black,
  • Armin Lak,
  • Ed Mann,
  • Stephanie J. Cragg,
  • Wickliffe C. Abraham,
  • John NJ Reynolds

摘要

In classical Pavlovian conditioning, it is well-established that midbrain dopamine neurons respond to conditioned stimuli (CS) that predict a reward. However, how the dopamine neurons associate a neutral CS to a reward remains unknown. Here, we show that in male rats and in both male and female mice, the superior colliculus (SC) develops neuronal responses to a visual CS during conditioning, which in turn drive the responses of dopamine neurons. Visual responses in the SC were only potentiated when a behaviorally meaningful time interval separated the visual stimulus and reward. Potentiation also required the convergence of visual, dopamine and serotonin inputs to the SC. Importantly, blocking potentiation of the visual response was sufficient to suppress the dopamine responses following a CS. These results reveal a mechanism for how the brain forms associations between unconditioned stimuli and behaviorally meaningful visual information during classical conditioning.