The path to learning: action acquisition is impaired when visual reinforcement signals must first access cortex

THIRKETTLE, Martin, WALTON, Thomas, SHAH, Ashvin, GURNEY, Kevin, REDGRAVE, Peter and STAFFORD, Tom (2013). The path to learning: action acquisition is impaired when visual reinforcement signals must first access cortex. Behavioural brain research, 243, 267-272.

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Official URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S...
Link to published version:: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2013.01.023

Abstract

Animals, interacting with the environment, learn and exploit the consequences of their movements. Fundamental to this is the pairing of salient sensory input with recent motor output to form an action-outcome pair linking a performed movement with its outcome. Short-latency dopamine (DA) signalling in the basal ganglia has been proposed to support this crucial task. For visual stimuli, this DA signalling is triggered at short latency by input from the superior colliculus (SC). While some aspects of the visual signal (e.g. luminance), are relayed directly to the SC via the retinotectal projection, other information unavailable to this subcortical pathway must take a more circuitous route to the SC, first submitting to early visual processing in cortex. By comparing action-outcome pairing when the visual stimulus denoting success was immediately available to the SC, via the retinotectal pathway, against that when cortical processing of the signal was required, the impact this additional sensory processing has on action-outcome learning can be established. We found that action acquisition was significantly impaired when the action was reinforced by a stimulus ineligible for the retinotectal pathway. Furthermore, we found that when the stimulus was eligible for the retinotectal pathway but evoked an increased latency, action acquisition was not impaired. These results suggest that the afferent sensory pathway via the SC is certainly primary and possibly instrumental to the DA neurons' role in the discovery of novel actions and that the differences found are not due to simple sensory latency.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Adolescent,Cerebral Cortex,Cerebral Cortex: cytology,Cerebral Cortex: physiology,Contrast Sensitivity,Contrast Sensitivity: physiology,Female,Humans,Learning,Learning: physiology,Male,Ocular,Ocular: physiology,Psychomotor Performance,Psychomotor Performance: physiology,Reaction Time,Reaction Time: physiology,Reinforcement (Psychology),Superior Colliculi,Superior Colliculi: physiology,Vision,Visual Pathways,Visual Pathways: physiology,Young Adult
Departments - Does NOT include content added after October 2018: Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities > Department of Psychology, Sociology and Politics
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2013.01.023
Page Range: 267-272
Depositing User: Martin Thirkettle
Date Deposited: 25 Jul 2017 13:36
Last Modified: 18 Mar 2021 02:30
URI: https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/15928

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