Dorsal striatal dopamine integrates sensory and reward prediction errors to guide perceptual decisions

Abstract

Perceptual decisions are shaped by expectations about sensory stimuli and rewards, learned through sensory and reward prediction errors. Dopamine is known to convey reward prediction errors that shape perceptual decisions. However, whether dopamine also signals sensory prediction errors during perceptual decision-making remains unknown. We recorded dopamine release in the dorsal striatum of mice performing a visual decision-making task while manipulating sensory and reward expectations. The two manipulations produced similar behavioral biases but elicited opposite dopamine signals, indicating that dopamine within the same striatal region encoded both sensory and reward prediction errors. Sensory prediction error signaling was specific to dopamine as striatal acetylcholine showed no such error signals. Optogenetically stimulating striatal dopamine at stimulus onset biased subsequent perceptual decisions, consistent with updating sensory expectations. A computational model learning from both sensory and reward prediction errors captured behavioral biases and dopamine data, revealing distinct but spatially overlapping dopaminergic teaching signals.