伦敦大学学院Marcus Stephenson-Jones小组的研究显示，多巴胺能动作预测误差是一种无价值的教学信号。2025年5月14日，国际知名学术期刊《自然》发表了这一成果。

在这里，研究小组在小鼠中进行了听觉辨别任务，以证明纹状体尾部与运动相关的多巴胺活动编码了假设的动作预测错误信号。数学操纵表明，这种预测误差作为一种价值无关的教学信号，通过加强重复的联系来支持学习。计算模型和实验表明，单独的动作预测误差不能支持奖励引导学习，但当与奖励预测误差电路配对时，它们有助于以无价值的方式巩固稳定的声音-动作关联。小组共同表明，有两种类型的多巴胺能预测错误协同工作，以支持学习，每一种都加强不同纹状体区域的不同类型的联系。

据介绍，动物的选择行为主要有两种倾向：采取导致奖励的行动和重复过去的行动。理论表明，这些策略可能会被不同类型的多巴胺能教学信号所强化：奖励预测错误会强化基于价值的联想，而基于动作的动作预测错误会强化无价值的重复联想。

附：英文原文

Title: Dopaminergic action prediction errors serve as a value-free teaching signal

Author: Greenstreet, Francesca, Vergara, Hernando Martinez, Johansson, Yvonne, Pati, Sthitapranjya, Schwarz, Laura, Lenzi, Stephen C., Geerts, Jesse P., Wisdom, Matthew, Gubanova, Alina, Rollik, Lars B., Kaur, Jasvin, Moskovitz, Theodore, Cohen, Joseph, Thompson, Emmett, Margrie, Troy W., Clopath, Claudia, Stephenson-Jones, Marcus

Issue&Volume: 2025-05-14

Abstract: Choice behaviour of animals is characterized by two main tendencies: taking actions that led to rewards and repeating past actions1,2. Theory suggests that these strategies may be reinforced by different types of dopaminergic teaching signals: reward prediction error to reinforce value-based associations and movement-based action prediction errors to reinforce value-free repetitive associations3,4,5,6. Here we use an auditory discrimination task in mice to show that movement-related dopamine activity in the tail of the striatum encodes the hypothesized action prediction error signal. Causal manipulations reveal that this prediction error serves as a value-free teaching signal that supports learning by reinforcing repeated associations. Computational modelling and experiments demonstrate that action prediction errors alone cannot support reward-guided learning, but when paired with the reward prediction error circuitry they serve to consolidate stable sound–action associations in a value-free manner. Together we show that there are two types of dopaminergic prediction errors that work in tandem to support learning, each reinforcing different types of association in different striatal areas.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09008-9

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09008-9