Benjamin T. Saunders

The basolateral amygdala dopamine system shapes dynamic drug seeking states

This study investigates how dopamine signaling and D1+ neurons in the basolateral amygdala influence cocaine seeking behavior in rats through environmental cues.

The parafascicular thalamus steers attention to facilitate learning

The paper shows that parafascicular thalamus (PF) neurons encode cue-directed behavior and associative learning, with their activity modulated by reward and extinction.

Basolateral amygdala dopamine transmits emotional salience

This study investigates how BLA dopamine signaling encodes emotional salience during associative learning, showing it reflects relative stimulus importance rather than associative strength or reward value.

Ventral tegmental area GABA neurons integrate positive and negative valence

This study shows that VTA GABA neurons encode both appetitive and aversive stimuli and are critical for decision-making in motivational conflicts.

Superior colliculus projections drive dopamine neuron activity and movement but not value

This study investigates the role of superior colliculus projections to dopamine neurons in rats, showing they drive movement-related behaviors like head turning but not reward-based learning.

Pavlovian cue-evoked alcohol seeking is disrupted by ventral pallidal inhibition

This study shows that inhibiting the ventral pallidum during alcohol cues reduces Pavlovian alcohol-seeking behavior in rats.

Dopamine neurons drive spatiotemporally heterogeneous striatal dopamine signals during learning

This study shows how dopamine signals in different striatal regions change during learning, with distinct patterns in nucleus accumbens core, shell, and dorsolateral striatum.

Valence ambiguity dynamically shapes striatal dopamine heterogeneity

The paper investigates how valence ambiguity affects striatal dopamine responses during learning, finding heterogeneous dopamine signaling across striatal subregions and differential updating rates following valence reversal.

Sensory cues potentiate VTA dopamine mediated reinforcement

The paper investigates how sensory cues enhance dopamine-mediated reinforcement using optogenetic ICSS in TH-cre rats, showing cues significantly potentiate self-stimulation behavior.

Basolateral amygdala population coding of a cued reward seeking state depends on orbitofrontal cortex

The paper shows that sustained BLA neuronal activity during reward seeking depends on OFC input and is reduced when OFC is inactivated or optogenetically disrupted.

Contexts facilitate dynamic value encoding in the mesolimbic dopamine system

This study investigates how dopamine neurons in the mesolimbic system enable rapid revaluation of reward cues in changing environments using behavioral and neurophysiological methods in rats.

Hierarchical cue control of drug seeking in the face of cost

This study investigates how patterns of drug intake and environmental cues influence relapse in rats, finding that binge-like cocaine intake predicts relapse despite escalating costs and that cues can hierarchically modulate drug-seeking behavior.

Instantiation of incentive value and movement invigoration by distinct midbrain dopamine circuits

This study shows that distinct midbrain dopamine circuits generate incentive value and movement invigoration through functionally heterogeneous signals during Pavlovian conditioning.