2023-10-13 04:00:11
Many studies have already explained how an animal learns to achieve a goal such as drinking when thirsty. But none to date has yet succeeded in demonstrating how it chooses between several needs. A recent study demonstrates that it is the secretion of dopamine (Dopamine is a neurotransmitter belonging to catecholamines and therefore derived from acid…) which helps guide which decision is the best to make.
Image d’illustration Pixabay
For more than a century, researchers have analyzed the relationships between dopamine and learning (Learning is the acquisition of know-how, that is to say the process…). We now know that dopamine neurons fire as a reward responding to various needs such as hunger, thirst, solitude, etc. Concretely, when an animal is thirsty and accesses water, the dopaminergic neurons exhibit activity. (The term activity can designate a profession.) intense and are perceived as a reward, a satisfaction, by the animal. This reaction makes it possible to encourage him to carry out the necessary action to satisfy his need (Needs are at the level of the interaction between the individual and the environment. It is…). However, the question that remains is the following: how can an animal use the same system and the same signals to orient itself, when several needs combine, for example when it needs to drink but also to eat?
To try to answer this question, researchers monitored the brain’s dopamine reward system in birds (zebra finches), and found discovered that this system can switch from one goal to another more important one when faced with several competing needs. Indeed, as part of their tests, they made male mandarins thirsty. The bird (A bird (or class of Aves) is a tetrapod animal belonging to the phylum of…) was trained to recognize that when a light flashed the eye…) he had access to water. When the bird was alone in its cage, the scientists were able to see that when this light came on, the bird would drink and this action immediately triggered a signal (General terms A signal is a simplified and generally coded message. There is …) significant dopamine. However, when a female was added to the cage, the thirsty male ignored the light and the dopaminergic signal stopped immediately: l The bird preferred to court the female than quench her thirst.
Thus, an animal’s priorities may change as new opportunities arise. Subsequently, the researchers were able to observe that when the female sang in response to the male, large activations were observed in the male’s dopaminergic system. It was therefore indeed dopamine that guided him to prefer the satisfaction of effectively courting the female, rather than quenching his thirst.
To carry out this study and be able to observe dopamine secretions, the researchers developed an optical recording technique and used a modified virus in order to visualize dopamine secretion. Concretely, the genes of the virus lead to the expression of fluorescent dopamine sensors in order to be able to see them through the tissue. The optical fibers placed in the brain might measure dopamine levels for several hours (The hour is a unit of measurement 🙂 in a row.
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