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Striatal circuits for reward learning and decision-making

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 20, pages 482–494 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

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 theories and hypotheses about how the striatal circuit mediates these functions. However, owing to technical limitations, testing these hypotheses rigorously has been difficult. In this Review, we briefly describe some of the classic ideas of striatal function. We then review recent studies in rodents that take advantage of optical and genetic methods to test these classic ideas by recording and manipulating identified cell types within the circuit. This new body of work has provided experimental support of some longstanding ideas about the striatal circuit and has uncovered critical aspects of the classic view that are incorrect or incomplete.

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Fig. 1: Heterogeneity of midbrain dopamine neurons.
Fig. 2: Direct and indirect pathway regulation of behaviour.
Fig. 3: Cholinergic interneurons modulate synaptic plasticity and cocaine context extinction learning.
Fig. 4: Glutamatergic inputs to the striatum.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank L. Pinto for comments on this manuscript and W. Fleming for providing a figure schematic. This work was funded by New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF), Pew, McKnight, NARSAD (US National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression) and Sloan Foundation grants to I.B.W.; US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants U19 NS104648-01, DP2 DA035149-01 and 5R01MH106689-02 (to I.B.W.) and F32 MH112320-02 (to J.C.); and Army Research Office grant W911NF-17-1-0554. I.B.W. is an NYSCF–Robertson Investigator.

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Nature Reviews Neuroscience thanks D. Sulzer and the other, anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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  1. Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Julia Cox & Ilana B. Witten

  2. Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Ilana B. Witten

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Glossary

Basal ganglia

An evolutionarily conserved group of interconnected subcortical nuclei that are involved in motor, cognitive and limbic processes.

Reinforcement learning

A learning process in which performance of a behaviour is modified by positive or negative feedback.

Medial forebrain bundle

A white-matter tract that contains dopaminergic axons travelling from the ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra pars compacta to the striatum.

Stimulus–outcome associations

Associations between sensory stimuli and the outcomes they predict, which induce conditioned behaviours, although experience of the outcome is independent of that behaviour.

Stimulus–response associations

Associations that result in the performance of actions in response to sensory stimuli, regardless of the value of the outcomes of the actions.

Action–outcome associations

Associations between actions (or responses) and the outcomes of those actions, the performance of which depends on the value of the outcomes.

Probabilistic reversal learning task

A behavioural task in which participants learn associations between actions and reward probabilities that are then reversed, requiring updating of learned associations.

Conditioned place preference

(CPP). An assay for measuring context-reward associations that evaluates how much time animals spend in a spatial location associated with a particular stimulus.

Devaluation test

A measurement of performance of an action with a learned outcome that becomes devalued (for example, with satiety) to assess whether a behaviour is more goal-directed or habitual.

Cost–benefit comparison

A comparison between actions that are associated with both a benefit (such as reward) and a cost (such as punishment).

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Cox, J., Witten, I.B. Striatal circuits for reward learning and decision-making. Nat Rev Neurosci 20, 482–494 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-019-0189-2

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