Dopamine Builds and Reveals Reward-Associated Latent Behavioral Attractors

Nature Communications 2024
Naudé J, Sarazin MXB, Mondoloni S, Hanesse B, Vicq E, Amegandjin F, Mourot A, Faure P, Delord B.

Abstract

Phasic variations in dopamine levels are interpreted as a teaching signal reinforcing rewarded behaviors. However, behavior also depends on the motivational, neuromodulatory effect of phasic dopamine. In this study, we reveal a neurodynamical principle that unifies these roles in a recurrent network-based decision architecture embodied through an action-perception loop with the task space, the MAGNet model. Dopamine optogenetic conditioning in mice was accounted for by an embodied network model in which attractors encode internal goals. Dopamine-dependent synaptic plasticity created “latent” attractors, to which dynamics converged, but only locally. Attractor basins were widened by dopamine-modulated synaptic excitability, rendering goals accessible globally, i.e. from distal positions. We validated these predictions optogenetically in mice : dopamine neuromodulation suddenly and specifically attracted animals toward rewarded locations, without off-target motor effects. We thus propose that motivational dopamine reveals dopamine-built attractors representing potential goals in a behavioral landscape.