Neuronal circuits underlying individual learning trajectories

forthcoming

Individuals learn in drastically diverse ways, whether at school, at work or when pursuing their hobby. In their journey from naïve to expert individuals discover distinct strategies for learning, forming diverse learning trajectories. However, the neuronal circuit computations that account for these learning trajectories are poorly understood. My lab's recent work found that in learning to make visual decisions from naïve to expert mice transition through sequence of strategies, showing substantial individual diversity in their learning trajectories. We discovered that dopamine signals in the dorsal striatum act as teaching signals that guide individual learning trajectories. Building up on these, I hypothesize that dopamine neurons broadcast heterogenous teaching signals that regulate neuronal responses within distinct striatal and frontal circuits, promoting different strategies during learning and governing diverse learning trajectories. We will test this overarching hypothesis in the following aims: I) Establish whether dopamine signals arriving in different striatal and cortical regions play separate roles in governing learning trajectories. II) Define frontal cortical signals during learning, and identify the role of distinct frontostriatal circuits in guiding learning. III) Determine the contribution of distinct striatal circuits in shaping individual learning trajectories. The project delivers unparalleled insights into neuronal circuit computations underlying individual learning trajectories from naïve to expert, and may offer insights into cognitive disorders linked to failures in these processes.