# Hippocampal interactions with striatal subnetworks for reward prediction and evaluation

> **NIH NIH R01** · ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE · 2024 · $455,970

## Abstract

Project Summary
Drug addiction is a debilitating disorder that represents a significant public health burden. It is
widely believed that addiction hijacks normal processes within the brain that assign reward
values to past and future actions. These processes are not understood, which has hindered our
ability to identify effective therapeutic targets. Part of the brain known as the ventral striatum
(VS) has been shown to encode reward values, but it is not known how these value
representations are linked to specific past or future actions, or how the functional
implementations of reward evaluation and prediction are subdivided among different neuronal
cell types within the VS. In this proposal, we address these questions by studying interactions
between the VS and the hippocampus (HPC), one of its major inputs. In specific aim 1, we will
test the hypothesis that coordinated activity between the HPC and the VS that occurs after
reward collection is involved in linking the reward value to the previous action and updating the
brain’s estimate of how valuable that reward was. In specific aim 2, we will test the hypothesis
that HPC-VS interactions before reward collection are involved in choosing among several
possible actions based on which has the highest predicted reward value. In specific aim 3, we
will test the hypothesis that the neuronal populations in VS that interact with HPC before or after
reward collection are genetically distinct neuronal subtypes. We expect this project will
contribute broadly to our knowledge of how the brain evaluates past rewards and predicts future
rewards, which may identify new therapeutic targets for treating drug addiction.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10929382
- **Project number:** 5R01DA051652-02
- **Recipient organization:** ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Lucas L Sjulson
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $455,970
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-09-15 → 2028-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10929382

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10929382, Hippocampal interactions with striatal subnetworks for reward prediction and evaluation (5R01DA051652-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10929382. Licensed CC0.

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