Midbrain dopamine neurons control judgment of time

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 354; no. 6317; pp. 1273 - 1277
• Main Authors: Soares, Sofia, Atallah, Bassam V., Paton, Joseph J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Association for the Advancement of Science 09.12.2016; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Activation; Animals; Clozapine - analogs & derivatives; Clozapine - pharmacology; Constants; Cues; Dopamine; Dopaminergic Neurons - drug effects; Dopaminergic Neurons - physiology; Encoding; Female; Integrases; Intervals; Judgment - physiology; Judgments; Male; Mesencephalon - cytology; Mesencephalon - drug effects; Mesencephalon - physiology; Mice; Neurons; Pharmacogenomic Testing; Time; Time Management; Time Perception - drug effects; Time Perception - physiology
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.aah5234

Our sense of time is far from constant. For instance, time flies when we are having fun, and it slows to a trickle when we are bored. Midbrain dopamine neurons have been implicated in variable time estimation. However, a direct link between signals carried by dopamine neurons and temporal judgments is lacking. We measured and manipulated the activity of dopamine neurons as mice judged the duration of time intervals. We found that pharmacogenetic suppression of dopamine neurons decreased behavioral sensitivity to time and that dopamine neurons encoded information about trial-to-trial variability in time estimates. Last, we found that transient activation or inhibition of dopamine neurons was sufficient to slow down or speed up time estimation, respectively. Dopamine neuron activity thus reflects and can directly control the judgment of time.