Action Selection and Addiction

In this part of the course we take another look at the basal ganglia.

In the previous lesson you learned how frontal and prefrontal areas of the cortex interact with the basal ganglia to choose movements, and how changes in tonic levels of dopamine provided by the substantia nigra and the ventral tegmental area can either decrease or increase the overall levels of motor activity produced. 

In this lecture we learn about phasic dopamine release, and the role it is thought to play by providing a "reward prediction error signal" to the cortex-basal ganglia circuits which shape our judgments about which of a set of possible actions is more likely to be rewarding.

We also take a look at how these action selection circuits may get hijacked by addictive drugs. 

Materials:

• Lecture slides (.pdf)
• Lecture slides (.pptx)

Lecture Videos

Click on the buttons to see videos of the Semester A 2018 lecture.

1: Reward Circuits2: Conditioned Reflexes and Reward Prediction3: The RoboRat4: Reward Systems and Learning5: Temporal Difference Learning6: Dopamine and Addictive Drugs7: Addiction and Stress PathwaysPlayback Speed:

If you want to see the videos for the corresponding lectures from the 2011 Oxford course here.