title: Dopamine neurons and their role in reward mechanisms.
abstract: Information related to rewards is processed by a limited number of brain structures. Recent studies have demonstrated that dopamine neurons respond to appetitive events, such as primary rewards and reward-predicting stimuli. Rather than responding unconditionally, these neurons signal deviations from the prediction of future appetitive events. These reward-related responses correspond formally to concepts of behavioral and computational learning theories and may thus constitute teaching signals for appetitive learning.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physiology, University of Fribourg, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland. Wolfram.Schultz@unifr.ch
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schultz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004298:Dopamine / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward
chemical_list: D004298:Dopamine