How your Brain Keeps Focused on Long Term

Goals
James Anderson August 5, 2013

The neurotransmitter dopamine may indicate the value of long-term rewards in

the brain, says a new study from MIT on how the brain maintains focus on long
term goals.
The study results could also clarify why patients suffering from Parkinsons
disease, in which dopamine signaling is impaired, typically have trouble keeping
motivated to finish tasks.
In previous studies, have dopamine has been linked to rewards, and dopamine
neurons showed brief bursts of activity when animals get an unforeseen reward.
These dopamine signals are believed to be important for reinforcement learning,
in which an animal learns to perform actions that lead to reward.

DELAYED GRATIFICATION
For most previous studies, the reward has been delivered within a few seconds.
Real life gratification, though, is not always immediate. Animals need to travel
while hunting for food, and have to keep their motivation for a distant goal while
also responding to more immediate cues. Likewise for humans, for example on a
long road trip the driver has to remain focused on reaching a final destination
while also reacting to traffic, stopping for snacks, and entertaining children in the
back seat.
The research team at MIT chose to study how dopamine changes during a maze
task similar to working for delayed gratification. Rats were trained to navigate a
maze to reach a reward. During each trial a rat would hear a tone cueing it to turn
either right or left at an intersection to find a chocolate milk reward.

Instead of only measuring activity of dopamine-containing neurons, the

researchers wanted to measure how much dopamine was released in the striatum.
The striatum is a brain area involved with reinforcement learning.
They teamed up with University of Washingtons Paul Phillips, who developed a
technology called fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) in which small,
implanted, carbon-fiber electrodes allow for continuous measurements of
dopamine concentration based on its electrochemical fingerprint.

THOUSANDS OF NERVE TERMINALS

We adapted the FSCV method so that we could measure dopamine at up to four
different sites in the brain simultaneously, as animals moved freely through the
maze, says Mark Howe, first author. Each probe measures the concentration of
extracellular dopamine within a tiny volume of brain tissue, and probably reflects
the activity of thousands of nerve terminals.
The researchers expected, from previous work, to perhaps see pulses of
dopamine released at different times in the trial, but in fact we found something
much more surprising, said team leader Ann Graybiel. The level of dopamine
increased steadily throughout each trial, peaking as the animal approached its
goal, as if in anticipation of a reward.
The dopamine signal seems to reflect how far away the rat is from its goal,
Graybiel continues. The closer it gets, the stronger the signal becomes.
Researchers also found that the size of the signal was related to the size of the
expected reward. When rats were trained to anticipate a larger chocolate milk
drink, the dopamine signal rose more steeply to a higher final concentration.

SLOW RAMPING DOPAMINE SIGNAL

This means that dopamine levels could be used to help an animal make choices
on the way to the goal and to estimate the distance to the goal, says the Salk
Institutes Terrence Sejnowski. This internal guidance system could also be

useful for humans, who also have to make choices along the way to what may be
a distant goal.
How relevant is this research to humans? Id be shocked if something similar
were not happening in our own brains, Graybiel says. It is known that
Parkinsons patients, in whom dopamine signaling is impaired, often seem
apathetic, and have difficulty in sustaining motivation to complete a long task.
Maybe thats because they cant produce this slow ramping dopamine signal.

REFERENCE:
Mark W. Howe, Patrick L. Tierney, Stefan G. Sandberg, Paul E. M. Phillips, Ann
M. Graybiel.
Prolonged dopamine signalling in striatum signals proximity and value of distant
rewards.
Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature12475

MIT Study Reveals the Key to Keeping

Your Eye on the Prize is Dopamine

510

Lauren Landry
8/9/13 @10:00am in Education

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Fresh-baked cookies sit cooling on the counter, waiting to be gobbled up by you

the person running round the neighborhood, wheezing yet determined to keep
the pounds down. Although dangerously out of breath, you know youre about to
indulge in an entire roll of Toll House. Those cookies are what keeps your feet
slapping against the asphalt, despite the cramps swiftly, painstakingly kicking in.
Without an immediate incentive, long-term goals are hard to stay focused on.
Keep your eye on the prize means nothing when the prize is miles away; a mere
figment of your imagination. A new study from MIT suggests the brain is capable
of maintaining motivation until the end goal is achieved, however, with an added
dose of dopamine.
A group of researchers, led by MIT Professor Ann Graybiel, trained rats to
navigate a maze to reach a reward. In this case, chocolate milk. To measure levels
of dopamine in the rats brains, the team partnered with Paul Phillips of the
University of Washington and used his fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV),

which involves small, implanted electrodes that continuously record dopamine

concentration based on its electrochemical fingerprint, according to MIT News.
During each trial, a rat would hear a tone instructing it to turn either right or left
to find its sweet reward. What the researchers expected was for the dopamine
signal to change based on a rats running speed or the trial duration. Instead, the
signal reflected how far away the critter was from its goal.
The closer [the rat] gets, the stronger the signal becomes, Graybiel told MIT
News, noting the signal also varied depending on the size of the expected reward.
When rats were trained to expect a bigger gulp of chocolate milk, the dopamine
rose more steeply to a higher final concentration.
Eventually, animals appeared to be adjusting their expectations, knowing they
had further to go, according to Graybiel, whose new goal is to, one day, examine
how the signal arises within the brain.
The studys relevance human-wise is that Parkinsons patients often appear to be
apathetic and have trouble sustaining motivation when it comes to achieving
long-term goals. Their dopamine signaling is also impaired, however, leading
Graybiel to believe, Maybe thats because they cant produce this slow ramping
dopamine signal.
As for how other humans and rats could relate, Graybiel admits, Id be shocked
if something similar were not happening in our own brains.
How else do you explain keeping a consistent pace all the way to those Toll
House cookies?
FILED UNDER:
ACADEMIC RESEARCH, MIT, NEWS