# Towards a unified framework for dopamine signaling in the striatum

> **NIH NIH U19** · HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL · 2020 · $3,618,257

## Abstract

Project abstract
Animals, including humans, interact with their environment via self-generated and continuous actions that
enable them to explore and subsequently experience the positive and negative consequences of their actions.
As a result of their interactions with the environment, animals alter their future behavior, typically in a manner
that maximizes positive and minimizes negative outcomes. Furthermore, how an animal interacts with its
environment and the actions that it chooses depend on its current environment, its past experience in that
environment, as well as its internal state. Thus, the actions taken by an animal are dynamic and evolving, as
necessary for behavioral adaptation. It is thought that both the execution of actions, in particular goal-oriented
actions, and the modification of future behavior in response to the outcome of actions, depend on evolutionarily
old parts of the brain called the basal ganglia. Within the basal ganglia, cells that produce dopamine have a
profound influence on behavior, including human behavior, and their activity appears to encode for features of
the environment and animal experience that are important for directing goal-oriented behavior. Here we bring
together a team of experimental and computational neurobiologists to understand how these dopamine-
producing cells modulate behavior and basal ganglia circuitry. We will use unifying theories and models to
integrate information acquired over many classes of behavior. Completing the proposed work, including the
technical advances and biological discoveries, will provide a platform for future analyses of related circuitry and
behaviors in many species, including humans.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9993576
- **Project number:** 5U19NS113201-02
- **Recipient organization:** HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
- **Principal Investigator:** JOHN ASSAD
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $3,618,257
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-15 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9993576

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9993576, Towards a unified framework for dopamine signaling in the striatum (5U19NS113201-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9993576. Licensed CC0.

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