Controlling threat and safety learning by Dopaminergic circuits

The mammalian dopamine system exhibits notable diversity, with dopamine neurons forming functionally distinct and nonoverlapping subpopulations based on their projection targets.

Dopamine neurons have crucial roles in mediating not only reward processing, but also threat and safety learning. Distinct dopaminergic circuits encode prediction errors for threats as well as absence of threats, which are critical dopamine signals for driving associative threat and safety learning, respectively.

Dopamine neurons that encode salience also project to brain regions underlying threat and safety learning, and are likely involved in these forms of learning.

Dopamine neurons mediate threat and safety learning through their projections to the amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, and striatum.

These distinct dopaminergic circuits mediate different phases of associative learning and memory for threats and safety.

https://www.cell.com/trends/neurosciences/fulltext/S0166-2236(24)00198-X

https://sciencemission.com/Dopaminergic-circuits-controlling-threat-and-safety-learning