The transition from adolescence to adulthood is characterized by improvements in higher-
order cognitive abilities and corresponding refinements of the structure and function of the …

The striatum is essential for learning which actions lead to reward and for implementing
those actions. Decades of experimental and theoretical work have led to several influential …

External rewards such as food and money are potent modifiers of behaviour,. Pioneering
studies established that these salient sensory stimuli briefly interrupt the tonic discharge of …

Ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine (DA) neurons play a central role in mediating
motivated behaviors, but the circuitry through which they signal positive and negative …

Environmental stimuli and objects, including rewards, are often processed sequentially in
the brain. Recent work suggests that the phasic dopamine reward prediction-error response …

Rewards are crucial objects that induce learning, approach behavior, choices, and
emotions. Whereas emotions are difficult to investigate in animals, the learning function is …

Dopamine (DA) neurons in the midbrain ventral tegmental area (VTA) integrate complex
inputs to encode multiple signals that influence motivated behaviors via diverse projections …

Reward prediction errors consist of the differences between received and predicted rewards.
They are crucial for basic forms of learning about rewards and make us strive for more …

Recent progress in understanding the diversity of midbrain dopamine neurons has
highlighted the importance—and the challenges—of defining mammalian neuronal cell …

Social interaction is a complex behavior essential for many species and is impaired in major
neuropsychiatric disorders. Pharmacological studies have implicated certain …