Asymmetric Evaluation of Values in the Basal Ganglia

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Asymmetric Evaluation of Values in the Basal Ganglia Hagai Bergman1* 1 Parc Scientifique et Technologique de Luminy, Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives de la Mediterranee, France Experimental and theoretical studies depict the basal ganglia as a reinforcement learning system where the dopaminergic neurons provide reinforcement error signal by modulation of their firing rate. However, the low tonic discharge rate of the dopaminergic neurons suggests that their capability to encode negative events by suppressing firing rate is limited. We recorded the spiking activity of neurons in five distinct areas of the basal ganglia (Substantia Nigra pars compacta and reticulata; Striatum; and Internal and external part of the pallidum) of two monkeys during the performance of probabilistic conditioning task with food, neutral and air-puff outcomes. The licking and blinking behavior during the cue presentation epoch reveals that monkeys expected the different probabilistic appetitive, neutral and aversive outcomes. Nevertheless, the activity of all five basal ganglia nuclei following the cues is strongly modulated by expectation of reward but not by expectation of the aversive event. Furthermore, this neural activity better reflects the probability of future reward than the probability of future aversive outcome. The difference between the response properties of the basal ganglia subsystems suggests distinct function of these populations where the modulators provide a scalar signal to the main axis of the basal ganglia network. The neural-behavioral asymmetry suggests that expectation of aversive events and rewards are differentially represented at many levels of the basal ganglia. This might be the physiological basis for asymmetric evaluation of aversive and appetitive events by human. Conference: 3rd Mediterranean Conference of Neuroscience , Alexandria, Egypt, 13 Dec - 16 Dec, 2009. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Symposium 08 – How does my brain decide? From decision to regret Citation: Bergman H (2009). Asymmetric Evaluation of Values in the Basal Ganglia. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: 3rd Mediterranean Conference of Neuroscience . doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.01.2009.16.031 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 19 Nov 2009; Published Online: 19 Nov 2009. * Correspondence: Hagai Bergman, Parc Scientifique et Technologique de Luminy, Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives de la Mediterranee, 13331 Marseille, France, hagaibe@ekmd.huji.ac.il Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Hagai Bergman Google Hagai Bergman Google Scholar Hagai Bergman PubMed Hagai Bergman Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.