ArticleNature neuroscience2026
Acetylcholine demixes heterogeneous dopamine signals for learning and moving.
Article in Nature neuroscience, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- The Cellular and Synaptic Actions of Dopamine During Behavior.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The parafascicular thalamus steers attention to facilitate learning.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Addressing degeneracy in rodent studies of cognition.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2026Review
- Thalamus orchestrates local acetylcholine-dependent dopamine release in the learning striatum.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Acetylcholine demixes heterogeneous dopamine signals for learning and moving.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- Rapid dopaminergic signatures in movement: Reach vigor reflects reward prediction error and learned expectation.Science advances · 2026Article
- Striatal Acetylcholine Dip-Rebound Is Induced by Direct-Pathway Neurons and Encode Action-Outcome Contingency.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Estrogen modulates reward prediction errors and reinforcement learning.Nature neuroscience · 2025Article
- FixGrower: An efficient and robust curriculum for shaping fixation behavior in rodents.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Striatal pathways oppositely shift cortical activity along the decision axis.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Rapid Dopaminergic Signatures in Movement: Reach Vigor Reflects Reward Prediction Error and Learned Expectation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Dynamic responses of striatal cholinergic interneurons control behavioral flexibility.Science advances · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
- Update of
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Midbrain dopamine neurons promote reinforcement learning and movement vigor. An outstanding question is how dopamine-recipient neurons in the striatum parse these heterogeneous signals. Previous work suggests that cholinergic striatal interneurons may gate dopamine-dependent plasticity, but this has not been tested in behaving animals. Here we studied rats performing a decision-making task with reward-related and movement-related events. Optical measurement of dopamine and acetylcholine release in the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) revealed that reward cues evoked cholinergic pauses with different phase relationships relative to dopamine. When dopamine lagged cholinergic dips, dopamine predicted future behavior and DMS firing rates on subsequent trials. In contrast, when dopamine preceded cholinergic dips, there was no observable relationship between dopamine and learning. Finally, when dopamine was coincident with cholinergic bursts, it preceded and predicted the vigor of contralateral orienting movements. Our findings suggest that cholinergic dynamics determine whether dopamine promotes vigor or learning, depending on the instantaneous behavioral context.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.