TY - JOUR

T1 - Behavioral encoding across timescales by region-specific dopamine dynamics

AU - Jørgensen, Søren H.

AU - Ejdrup, Aske L.

AU - Lycas, Matthew D.

AU - Posselt, Leonie P.

AU - Madsen, Kenneth L.

AU - Tian, Lin

AU - Dreyer, Jakob K.

AU - Herborg, Freja

AU - Sørensen, Andreas T.

AU - Gether, Ulrik

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - The dorsal (DS) and ventral striatum (VS) receive dopaminergic projections that control motor functions and reward-related behavior. It remains poorly understood how dopamine release dynamics across different temporal scales in these regions are coupled to behavioral outcomes. Here, we employ the dopamine sensor dLight1.3b together with multiregion fiber photometry and machine learning-based analysis to decode dopamine dynamics across the striatum during self-paced exploratory behavior in mice. Our data show a striking coordination of rapidly fluctuating signal in the DS, carrying information across dopamine levels, with a slower signal in the VS, consisting mainly of slow-paced transients. Importantly, these release dynamics correlated with discrete behavioral motifs, such as turns, running, and grooming on a subsecond-to-minute time scale. Disruption of dopamine dynamics with cocaine caused randomization of action selection sequencing and disturbance of DS-VS coordination. The data suggest that distinct dopamine dynamics of DS and VS jointly encode behavioral sequences during unconstrained activity with DS modulating the stringing together of actions and VS the signal to initiate and sustain the selected action.

AB - The dorsal (DS) and ventral striatum (VS) receive dopaminergic projections that control motor functions and reward-related behavior. It remains poorly understood how dopamine release dynamics across different temporal scales in these regions are coupled to behavioral outcomes. Here, we employ the dopamine sensor dLight1.3b together with multiregion fiber photometry and machine learning-based analysis to decode dopamine dynamics across the striatum during self-paced exploratory behavior in mice. Our data show a striking coordination of rapidly fluctuating signal in the DS, carrying information across dopamine levels, with a slower signal in the VS, consisting mainly of slow-paced transients. Importantly, these release dynamics correlated with discrete behavioral motifs, such as turns, running, and grooming on a subsecond-to-minute time scale. Disruption of dopamine dynamics with cocaine caused randomization of action selection sequencing and disturbance of DS-VS coordination. The data suggest that distinct dopamine dynamics of DS and VS jointly encode behavioral sequences during unconstrained activity with DS modulating the stringing together of actions and VS the signal to initiate and sustain the selected action.

KW - cocaine

KW - dopamine release

KW - dopamine sensors

KW - machine learning

KW - mouse behavior

U2 - 10.1073/pnas.2215230120

DO - 10.1073/pnas.2215230120

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 36749722

AN - SCOPUS:85147720901

VL - 120

JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

SN - 0027-8424

IS - 7

M1 - e2215230120

ER -