Although anxiety disorders represent a major societal problem demanding new therapeutic
targets, these efforts have languished in the absence of a mechanistic understanding of this …

Dopamine neurons facilitate learning by calculating reward prediction error, or the difference
between expected and actual reward. Despite two decades of research, it remains unclear …

The basal ganglia are known to influence action selection and modulation of movement
vigor, but whether and how they contribute to specifying the kinematics of learned motor …

Computers have undergone tremendous improvements in performance over the last 60
years, but those improvements have significantly slowed down over the last decade, owing …

Recent studies indicate that dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and
substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) convey distinct signals. To explore this difference, we …

Classical Hebbian learning puts the emphasis on joint pre-and postsynaptic activity, but
neglects the potential role of neuromodulators. Since neuromodulators convey information …

The Drosophila brain contains a relatively simple circuit for forming Pavlovian associations,
yet it achieves many operations common across memory systems. Recent advances have …

Recent behavioral studies in both humans and rodents have found evidence that
performance in decision-making tasks depends on two different learning processes; one …

The significantly expanded and updated new edition of a widely used text on reinforcement
learning, one of the most active research areas in artificial intelligence. Reinforcement …

Cognitive control is subjectively costly, suggesting that engagement is modulated in
relationship to incentive state. Dopamine appears to play key roles. In particular, dopamine …