Objective
One of the key goals in neuroscience is to understand how neural activity generates behavior. Electrophysiological recordings have provided great insights into this relationship, but they cannot resolve the contribution of specific neuronal cell types. Moreover, it has been notoriously difficult to move beyond correlation and demonstrate the functional significance of neural firing for specific behaviors. Recently developed optogenetic techniques overcome these limitations by tagging specific neuronal populations for electrophysiological identification and manipulation in vivo. The experiments described in this proposal apply this approach to midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons in awake, behaving mice.
DA neurons are key players in reward-processing. They respond to unexpected rewards and sensory cues predicting future rewards, while unexpected reward omission suppresses them. Thus, DA neurons seem to encode the discrepancy between predicted and actual reward, also called reward prediction errors. Based on formal theories of reinforcement learning, it has been proposed that DA acts as a teaching signal to mediate learning from reward. Here, we propose to evaluate the causal relationship between DA activation to reward-predicting cues and ongoing behavior, learning and extinction. Moreover, we will perform an analysis of the neuronal computations underlying dopamine’s role in reinforcement learning to understand how DA responses are generated at the circuit level. Since disturbances of reinforcement learning have been directly linked to human pathological conditions including schizophrenia, depression and autism as well as maladaptive behaviors in addiction, the research program put forward in this proposal has broad implications for improving our understanding of these pathological conditions and may ultimately support the development of novel interventional strategies.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciences biological sciences neurobiology
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence machine learning reinforcement learning
- natural sciences mathematics pure mathematics mathematical analysis functional analysis
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine psychiatry schizophrenia
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MC-CIG - Support for training and career development of researcher (CIG)
Coordinator
9052 ZWIJNAARDE - GENT
Belgium
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.