Neuroscience Professor @ National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan | decision making | attention | reward | #BasalForebrain l @sclin-lab.bsky.social
Taipei, Taiwan
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Our 2nd preprint this week tackles a puzzle in BF reward prediction: bursts are both stable and flexible. Across conditions, neurons preserve relative response amplitudes, yet burst amplitude scales with reward prediction. How can a circuit do both?
biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
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Shih-Chieh Lin retweeted
One shape, many volumes!🔊
Using #ephys & #optogenetics in #awakemice, Hsiao-Chen Liu & Shih-Chieh Lin show one-sided Npr3 activation recruits the full bilateral basal forebrain burst, encoding reward prediction 👏👏👏
biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
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Our 2nd preprint this week tackles a puzzle in BF reward prediction: bursts are both stable and flexible. Across conditions, neurons preserve relative response amplitudes, yet burst amplitude scales with reward prediction. How can a circuit do both?
biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
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This solves a transformation problem: heterogeneous, distributed inputs can be converted into a common BF output. The attractor supplies a shared response format, while linear summation provides a simple algorithm for pooling sparse inputs into reward-prediction strength.
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Finally, what circuit closes the recurrent loop?
Our 1st preprint nominates VTA dopamine neurons: DA drives BF bursting within ~10 ms, while BF Npr3 neurons project to VTA.
Together, this suggests BF↔VTA recurrence may compute reward prediction.
New preprint from our lab ⚡
Why do DA and BF bursting neurons carry such similar reward-prediction signals? Are they independent, driven by common input, or causally linked?
We find a direct answer: DA activity rapidly and causally drives BF.
biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
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New preprint from our lab ⚡
Why do DA and BF bursting neurons carry such similar reward-prediction signals? Are they independent, driven by common input, or causally linked?
We find a direct answer: DA activity rapidly and causally drives BF.
biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
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Taken together, DA neurons exert millisecond-scale causal control over BF bursting, from phasic reward-prediction responses to ongoing activity. This links two major subcortical systems previously studied largely independently into a directionally coupled circuit.
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