Juliana B. Chase

Genetic changes linked to two different syndromic forms of autism enhance reinforcement learning in early adolescent male but not female mice

The paper investigates reinforcement learning in male and female mice with ASD-linked mutations, finding enhanced learning in males but not females, with effects modulated by reward uncertainty.

Adolescent and adult mice use both incremental reinforcement learning and short term memory when learning concurrent stimulus-action associations

This study shows adolescent and adult mice use both reinforcement learning and short-term memory strategies to learn a conditional odor association task, with no developmental difference in learning rates but increased reliance on perseverative strategies in males.

Choice suppression is achieved through opponent but not independent function of the striatal indirect pathway in mice

This study investigates the role of the indirect pathway in choice suppression using chemogenetic manipulation in mice, finding that activation, not inhibition, of iSPNs disrupts suppression of nonrewarded choices.