Dopamine for performance evaluation—Insights from songbirds

• Published in: Handbook of Behavioral Neuroscience Vol. 32; pp. 275 - 285
• Main Author: Gadagkar, Vikram
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Science & Technology 2025
• Subjects: Birdsong; Computation; Courtship; Dopamine; Motor control; Performance prediction error; Reinforcement learning; Song system; Vocal learning; Zebra finch; Courtship; Dopamine; Vocal learning; Birdsong; Computation; Performance prediction error; Reinforcement learning; Song system; Zebra finch; Motor control
• ISBN: 9780443298677; 044329867X
• ISSN: 1569-7339
• DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-443-29867-7.00017-7

Many of our motor skills are acquired through motor exploration and performance evaluation, suggesting reinforcement learning. Songbirds have emerged as a powerful model system to investigate the neural mechanisms for learning internally-guided motor sequences. Recent studies in the zebra finch have focused on midbrain dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area that project to Area X, the singing-related basal ganglia. By distorting specific song syllables, it was discovered that these neurons encode performance prediction error; they are suppressed after worse-than-expected performance (distorted syllables) and activated after better-than-expected performance (undistorted syllables). Pitch-contingent optogenetic activation of these neurons drove changes in syllable pitch, showing causality. These performance error signals, present while birds sang alone, were substantially diminished when singing to a female; dopamine was instead activated by female vocalizations. These results demonstrate the social modulation of dopamine error signals and dopamine's state-dependent retuning from self-evaluation to social feedback during courtship.