Research article summary (published 14 Aug 2009):

Stress, genotype and norepinephrine in the prediction of mouse behavior using reinforcement learning.

Full Abstract

Individual behavioral performance during learning is known to be affected by modulatory factors, such as stress and motivation, and by genetic predispositions that influence sensitivity to these factors. Despite numerous studies, no integrative framework is available that could predict how a given animal would perform a certain learning task in a realistic situation. We found that a simple reinforcement learning model can predict mouse behavior in a hole-box conditioning task if model metaparameters are dynamically controlled on the basis of the mouse's genotype and phenotype, stress conditions, recent performance feedback and pharmacological manipulations of adrenergic alpha-2 receptors. We find that stress and motivation affect behavioral performance by altering the exploration-exploitation balance in a genotype-dependent manner. Our results also provide computational insights into how an inverted U-shape relation between stress/arousal/norepinephrine levels and behavioral performance could be explained through changes in task performance accuracy and future reward discounting.

Author information

Author/s: Luksys, Gediminas (G); Gerstner, Wulfram (W); Sandi, Carmen (C);

Affiliation: Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. eurogedi(-atsign-)hotmail.com

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Nature neuroscience (Nat Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Sep; vol 12 (issue 9) : pp 1180-6

Dates: Created 2009/08/27; Completed 2009/09/23;

PMID: 19684590, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 9/23/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Animals Behavior, Animal - physiology Computer Simulation Conditioning, Classical - physiology Exploratory Behavior - physiology Feedback, Psychological Genotype Learning - physiology Male Mice Mice, Inbred C57BL

Mice, Inbred C57BL Mice, Inbred DBA Models, Psychological Motivation Norepinephrine - metabolism Personality - genetics Phenotype Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha-2 - metabolism Reinforcement (Psychology) Species Specificity Stress, Psychological - physiopathology

Associated Chemicals: Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha-2 (0) ; Norepinephrine (51-41-2)

Related articles

This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.

See 100+ related articles.

See a large map of 100+ related articles.