Knowledge of the effect of dopamine on corticostriatal synaptic plasticity has advanced
rapidly over the last 5 years. We consider this new knowledge in relation to three factors …

The analysis of the neural mechanisms responsible for reward-related learning has
benefited from recent studies of the effects of dopamine on synaptic plasticity. Dopamine …

Recent studies suggest new ways to interpret dopaminergic actions in goal-directed
performance and habitual responding. In the early stages of learning dopamine plays an …

Positive reinforcement helps to control the acquisition of learned behaviours. Here we report
a cellular mechanism in the brain that may underlie the behavioural effects of positive …

Activity-dependent synaptic plasticity occurs in several parts of the basal ganglia. Increasing
evidence supports the hypothesis that activity-dependent plasticity underlies the acquisition …

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent and debilitating disorder
diagnosed on the basis of persistent and developmentally-inappropriate levels of …

Behavioral conditioning of cue-reward pairing results in a shift of midbrain dopamine (DA)
cell activity from responding to the reward to responding to the predictive cue. However, the …

This review considers the hypothesis that changes in dopamine signalling might account for
altered sensitivity to positive reinforcement in children with ADHD. The existing evidence …

Dopamine and glutamate are key neurotransmitters involved in learning and memory
mechanisms of the brain. These two neurotransmitter systems converge on nerve cells in the …

Learning deficits resulting from dopamine depletion suggest that striatal dopamine release
is crucial for reinforcement. Recently described firing patterns of dopamine neurons in …