# Exploring dopamine function during naturalistic behavior

> **NIH NIH U19** · HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL · 2020 · $775,120

## Abstract

Project abstract
Animals explore their environment spontaneously in order to obtain food, water and shelter, as well as to find
mates. Feedback from the environment, including the acquisition of rewards (such as those listed above) or
avoiding aversive outcomes (such as encountering a predator), alters the future behavior of the animal. This
form of learning and adaptation is essential to survival and, in vertebrates, is shaped by the basal ganglia and
strongly influenced by neurons that make dopamine. Here we examine when dopamine neurons are active
during free exploration and how that activity is influenced by the virtual acquisition of an expected reward, or a
reward triggered by the execution of a specific motor action. We will compare the activity of two different
sources of dopamine that have been differentially implicated in signaling reward and in executing motor
actions. Lastly, we will examine how the activity of dopamine neurons regulates their downstream targets to
sculpt on going and future motor action. Our results will be integrated into a computational framework that will
be used to guide future research into motor control, dopamine signaling, and behavioral adaptation.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9993583
- **Project number:** 5U19NS113201-02
- **Recipient organization:** HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
- **Principal Investigator:** Sandeep R Datta
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $775,120
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-15 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9993583

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9993583, Exploring dopamine function during naturalistic behavior (5U19NS113201-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9993583. Licensed CC0.

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