Person:
Cohen, Jeremiah Yaacov

Profile Picture

Email Address

AA Acceptance Date

Birth Date

Research Projects

Organizational Units

Job Title

Last Name

Cohen

First Name

Jeremiah Yaacov

Name

Cohen, Jeremiah Yaacov

Filters

2011 - 20122

Settings

Author's Publications: search.filters.isAuthorOfPublication.ccc20e41-2c2c-4772-a0dc-1a00a740d7a0

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Neuron-Type-Specific Signals for Reward and Punishment in the Ventral Tegmental Area
    (Nature Publishing Group, 2012) Cohen, Jeremiah Yaacov; Haesler, Sebastian; Vong, Linh; Lowell, Bradford; Uchida, Naoshige
    Dopamine has a central role in motivation and reward. Dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) signal the discrepancy between expected and actual rewards (that is, reward prediction error)1–3, but how they compute such signals is unknown. We recorded the activity of VTA neurons while mice associated different odour cues with appetitive and aversive outcomes. We found three types of neuron based on responses to odours and outcomes: approximately half of the neurons (type I, 52%) showed phasic excitation after reward-predicting odours and rewards in a manner consistent with reward prediction error coding; the other half of neurons showed persistent activity during the delay between odour and outcome that was modulated positively (type II, 31%) or negatively (type III, 18%) by the value of outcomes. Whereas the activity of type I neurons was sensitive to actual outcomes (that is, when the reward was delivered as expected compared to when it was unexpectedly omitted), the activity of type II and type III neurons was determined predominantly by reward-predicting odours. We ‘tagged’ dopaminergic and GABAergic neurons with the light-sensitive protein channelrhodopsin-2 and identified them based on their responses to optical stimulation while recording. All identified dopaminergic neurons were of type I and all GABAergic neurons were of type II. These results show that VTA GABAergic neurons signal expected reward, a key variable for dopaminergic neurons to calculate reward prediction error.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    EMBO Conference Series on the Assembly and Function of Neuronal Circuits
    (BioMed Central, 2011) Wang, Alice Y.; Cohen, Jeremiah Yaacov
    The 2011 EMBO Conference Series on the Assembly and Function of Neuronal Circuits was held from 25 to 30 September 2011 at Monte Verità in Ascona, Switzerland. Approximately 100 participants explored current challenges and approaches to studying neural circuit function and organization.