아래와 같이 강연해 주실 예정이오니, 구성원들의 많은 관심과 참여 부탁드립니다.

• 일시 : 2023.05.10(수), 1 PM
• 장소 : 뇌인지과학과 세미나실 (203동 106호) 
• 주제 : 도파민 활동의 관찰과 조절을 통한 뇌의 학습 원리 연구 (Investigating the role of dopamine during learning by monitoring and manipulation)
  
  Neuromodulator dopamine is involved in motivation, movement, and learning good and bad information.  The first line of study is to examine dopamine activity during spatial navigation. While animals approach the reward location, a gradual ramp of dopamine activity was observed (Howe et al, 2013). We trained mice for an approach-to-reward task in virtual reality. Using visual manipulations such as teleport and speed change during the task, we showed that the dopamine ramp is a moment-by-moment temporal-difference (TD) error, not a value. In the second part of the talk, I will show some preliminary results from a new project studying brain-wide changes during awake and unconscious learning. Animal studies using invasive methods often focus on a few brain regions of interest. To monitor brain-wide changes during associative learning, We paired  flash of light and optogenetic stimulation of VTA dopamine neurons. We then compared the light-evoked fMRI signals before and after the pairing. We found that a few brain areas show a significant increase in fMRI activities. We plan to extend this method to compare brain-wide changes between awake and unconscious associative learning.