Melissa J. Sharpe

Dopamine projections to the basolateral amygdala enable reward prediction

This study shows that dopamine projections from the ventral tegmental area to the basolateral amygdala support reward prediction and influence decision-making and learning in rats.

A common stay-on-goal mechanism in anterior cingulate cortex for information and effort choices

This study shows the anterior cingulate cortex supports persistence toward certain and valuable rewards in both information and effort choices.

Prior cocaine use diminishes encoding of latent information by orbitofrontal, but not medial, prefrontal ensembles

This study shows that prior cocaine use changes neural ensemble representations in the orbitofrontal cortex, affecting decision-making in rats.

Dopamine projections to the basolateral amygdala drive the encoding of identity-specific reward memories

This study identifies that dopamine projections from the ventral tegmental area to the basolateral amygdala are necessary and sufficient for encoding identity-specific reward memories in rats.

A novel hypothalamic-midbrain circuit for model-based learning

This paper identifies a novel hypothalamic-midbrain circuit that supports model-based learning and shows its alteration in methamphetamine use.

The cognitive basis of intracranial self-stimulation of midbrain dopamine neurons

The paper shows dopamine neurons support intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) only at supraphysiological frequencies, not reflecting their role in reinforcement learning.

BehaviorDEPOT: a tool for automated behavior classification and analysis in rodents

BehaviorDEPOT automates behavior classification and analysis in rodents, providing tools for tracking, classification, and experimental setup with reduced costs and improved reliability.

"Learning in reverse: Dopamine errors drive excitatory and inhibitory components of backward conditioning in an outcome-specific manner".

This paper investigates whether dopamine signals are involved in backward conditioning, showing that optogenetic inhibition of VTADA neurons disrupts both excitatory and inhibitory components of this learning.

Devaluation-sensitive responding to preconditioned cues requires orbitofrontal cortex during initial cue-cue learning

This paper shows that orbitofrontal cortex activity during cue preconditioning is necessary for value inference in probe tests, indicating it encodes associative information beyond value.

Causal evidence supporting the proposal that dopamine transients function as a temporal difference prediction error

The paper provides causal evidence that dopamine transients from reward-predictive cues function as prediction errors by showing their role in second-order conditioning.

Dopamine transients delivered in learning contexts do not act as model-free prediction errors

This study shows that dopamine transients in learning contexts do not create cached value but instead support valueless associative learning.