Operant learning articles from across Nature Portfolio

How noradrenergic modulation could support the flexible switching of cognitive states in primates is not fully understood. Here authors show that alpha-2A noradrenergic action causally enhances cognitive flexibility by enhancing prediction error signaling and neural coding of attended target features in anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior striatum.

A protocol for common variants of outcome devaluation tasks facilitates standardization of testing goal-directed behavior in rats by detailing control conditions, outcome pre-exposure, habituation to pre-feeding chambers and hunger levels in rats.

Using dopamine photometry and reinforcement learning models in mice flexibly acquiring cue–action–outcome associations with rule switches, Bernklau et al. show that striatal dopamine reflects an animal’s current understanding of their task.

The ventrolateral and medial orbitofrontal cortices are involved in selecting actions based on the value of expected outcomes. Malvaez and colleagues reveal that these brain regions are specialized in value encoding (ventrolateral orbitofrontal cortices) versus value memory retrieval (medial orbitofrontal cortices) and that they interact with the basolateral amygdala to orchestrate goal-oriented reward-seeking.