Hunger modulates exploration through dopamine signaling at the tail of striatum
Tarun Kamath, Bart Lodder, Eliana Bilsel, Isobel Green, Sara Matias, Paolo Capelli, Michelle Raghubardayal, Jessie Legister, Nikki Tjahjono, Erin Scott, Janet Berrios Wallace, Lin Tian, Naoshige Uchida, Mitsuko Watabe-Uchida, Bernardo Sabatini · COSYNE 2025
When animals explore, they choose to learn new information rather than exploit known information. This exploration is modulated by dopamine release in the striatum, a prediction-error teaching signal that allows animals to learn from both rewards and threats depending on the striatal subregion in which dopamine is released. Exploration and dopamine signaling are modulated by internal state, including caloric depletion or “hunger”, such that when animals are hungry they explore their environment more, presumably in an attempt to find food. While this adaptation has been known for decades, the n
ePoster · Neuroscience