# Converting Value into Action: Computations in Corticostriatal Circuits for Flexible Decision Making

> **NIH NIH F32** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $70,994

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
To flexibly execute behavior, choices are made based on previous outcomes that will maximize reward.
Crucially, learning the value of each action to obtain a reward is thought to drive this decision making process.
In a value-based decision making framework, these values are first computed and then used to select and
execute actions. Dysfunction in this decision making process is evident in many neuropsychiatric disorders
including addiction and in patients with frontal cortical damage who show an inability to flexibly adjust or adapt
their behavior. The corticostriatal pathway, from the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) to its downstream target,
dorsomedial striatum (DMS), is a candidate circuit implicated in promoting flexible behavior. Neural correlates
of value have been found in mPFC across species, and DMS is traditionally thought to be involved in action
selection, where representations of action values have been found in DMS neurons. However, it is unclear
exactly how representations of value are then transformed into actual movements for adaptive behavior.
Similarly, many studies that have described representations of value in either region have done so using
discrete binary measures of behavior and correlate neural activity only to the action's endpoint (e.g. emitting a
lick at a left or right spout, or making a saccade to a target). This project will investigate the transformation of
value into actions in mice by investigating how mPFC and DMS neural activity represent value during ongoing
movements (Aim 1), and will reveal the specific cell types and pathways within the corticostriatal pathway that
are necessary for value representation and action selection (Aim 2). In both aims, action potentials from mPFC
and DMS will be recorded as thirsty head-fixed mice perform in a dynamic foraging task that requires a joystick
movement to search for the high-probability reward, where the location of the high-probability reward changes
over time. Value-based decision variables, such as action values and relative value, will be quantified by
correlating the animal's joystick movement behavior to neural activity in both areas (Aim 1). This will reveal
how mPFC and DMS compute decision variables during ongoing movements. Aim 2 will reveal the specific
neural circuitry between mPFC and DMS; perturbations of mPFC layer 5 pyramidal tract neurons will reveal
how value-based decision variables are represented in the corticostriatal pathway, and by using transgenic
mouse lines paired with antidromic stimulation, direct and indirect pathway neurons in DMS will be identified to
determine each cell type's role in representing value and transforming value into action. This project overall will
provide a better understanding of how values are attributed to actions during the decision making process, and
will identify how specific cells in the corticostriatal pathway compute and transform information about value to
make optimal choices.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10314166
- **Project number:** 1F32MH127780-01
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Linda Amarante
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $70,994
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-08-11 → 2024-08-10

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10314166

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10314166, Converting Value into Action: Computations in Corticostriatal Circuits for Flexible Decision Making (1F32MH127780-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10314166. Licensed CC0.

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