Abstract

The auditory striatum, the tail portion of dorsal striatum in basal ganglia, is implicated in perceptual decision-making, transforming auditory stimuli to action outcomes. Despite its known connections to diverse neurological conditions, the dopaminergic modulation of sensory striatal neuronal activity and its behavioral influences remain unknown. We demonstrated that the optogenetic inhibition of dopaminergic projections from the substantia nigra pars compacta to the auditory striatum specifically impairs mouse choice performance but not movement in an auditory frequency discrimination task. In vivo dopamine and calcium imaging in freely behaving mice revealed that this dopaminergic projection modulates striatal tone representations, and tone-evoked striatal dopamine release inversely correlated with the evidence strength of tones. Optogenetic inhibition of D1-receptor expressing neurons and pharmacological inhibition of D1 receptors in the auditory striatum dampened choice performance accuracy. Our study uncovers a phasic mechanism within the nigrostriatal system that regulates auditory decisions by modulating ongoing auditory perception.

The auditory striatum, the tail portion of dorsal striatum, is implicated in decision-making. This study uncovers a phasic mechanism within the nigrostriatal system that regulates auditory decisions by modulating ongoing auditory perception.

Details

Title
Nigrostriatal dopamine pathway regulates auditory discrimination behavior
Author
Chen, Allen P. F. 1 ; Malgady, Jeffrey M. 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Chen, Lu 2 ; Shi, Kaiyo W. 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Cheng, Eileen 3 ; Plotkin, Joshua L. 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ge, Shaoyu 2 ; Xiong, Qiaojie 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Stony Brook University, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook, USA (GRID:grid.36425.36) (ISNI:0000 0001 2216 9681); Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, Medical Scientist Training Program, Stony Brook, USA (GRID:grid.36425.36) (ISNI:0000 0001 2216 9681) 
 Stony Brook University, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook, USA (GRID:grid.36425.36) (ISNI:0000 0001 2216 9681) 
 Stony Brook University, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook, USA (GRID:grid.36425.36) (ISNI:0000 0001 2216 9681); Stony Brook University, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Stony Brook, USA (GRID:grid.36425.36) (ISNI:0000 0001 2216 9681) 
 Stony Brook University, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook, USA (GRID:grid.36425.36) (ISNI:0000 0001 2216 9681); Stony Brook University, Center for Nervous System Disorders, Stony Brook, USA (GRID:grid.36425.36) (ISNI:0000 0001 2216 9681) 
Publication year
2022
Publication date
2022
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2722750307
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2022. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.