Subregion specific dynamics of striatal dopamine

Transient increases in dopamine within the striatum can encode reward
prediction errors, critical signals for updating predictions of future
rewards. However, it is unclear how this mechanism can provide suitable
feedback for predictions across a wide range of time horizons: from
seconds or less (if singing a song) to potentially hours or more (if
hunting for food). Here we report that dopamine transients in distinct
striatal subregions convey prediction errors over distinct time scales.
Dopamine dynamics systematically accelerated from ventral to dorsal-
medial to dorsal-lateral striatum, in the tempo of their spontaneous
fluctuations, their temporal integration of prior rewards, and their
discounting of future rewards. This spectrum of time scales for evaluative
computations can help achieve efficient learning and adaptive motivation
for a wide range of behaviors.

纹状体内多巴胺的瞬时增加可编码奖励预测误差——这是更新未来奖励预测的关键信号。然而，目前尚不清楚该机制如何为跨广泛时间尺度的预测提供合适的反馈：时间尺度从几秒或更短（如唱歌）到可能数小时或更长（如觅食）不等。本文报告，不同纹状体亚区的多巴胺瞬时信号在不同时间尺度上传递预测误差。多巴胺动态从腹侧纹状体到背内侧纹状体再到背外侧纹状体呈现系统性加速，体现在其自发波动的节奏、对既往奖励的时间整合以及对未来奖励的贴现上。这种评估计算的时间尺度谱有助于为广泛行为实现高效学习和适应性动机。