Elsevier

Brain Research

Volume 567, Issue 2, 20 December 1991, Pages 337-341
Brain Research

Responses of monkey midbrain dopamine neurons during delayed alternation performance

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(91)90816-EGet rights and content

Abstract

Cognitive deficits are important components of the parkinsonian syndrome. In order to investigate the role of dopamine (DA) neurons in cognitive functions, we recorded the electrical activity of midbrain DA neurons in a monkey performing in a spatial delayed alternation task. Triggered by a light, the animal reached toward one of two levers to receive a drop of liquid reward. The lever associated with reward was alternated after each correct movement. Of 88 DA neurons, 65% and 52% showed phasic responses to the trigger light and reward, respectively. By contrast, sustained delay-related activity described for striatum and frontal cortex was not observed, suggesting that the activity of DA neurons does not reflect mnemonic or preparatory representational task components. Rather, DA neurons respond to the salient attentional and motivating stimuli guiding task performance.

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*

Present address: Department of Pharmacology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

**

Present address: Laboratoire de Neurosciences Fonctionelles, U3, CNRS, Marseille, France.

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