Topic: reward prediction errors (RPE)

To make decisions in a dynamic world, animals adjust their behavior in response to environmental feedback. To understand how this flexibility is achieved, we seek to understand how the nervous system learns from choice outcomes. Theories proposed that norepinephrine (NE) neurons in the locus coeruleus (LC) modulate learning from reinforcement. We tested this hypothesis by measuring activity from identified mouse LC-NE neurons during a behavioral task requiring ongoing learning from reward prediction errors (RPE). Mice were trained to make choices to lick leftward or rightward for reward with c