Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( 🔒 ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Need Help

Dopaminergic modulation of nucleus accumbens during prospective and retrospective neuroeconomic decision making

Award Number: F30MH124404
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: FELLOWSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP/STUDENT LOANS
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 05/31/2021
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 05/14/2026

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Dopaminergic modulation of nucleus accumbens during prospective and retrospective neuroeconomic decision making - PROJECT SUMMARY In 2017, it was estimated that nearly 20% of the adult population in the U.S. live with a mental illness, yet much remains unknown about the pathophysiology of psychiatric disease and the specific behavioral symptomatology. Aberrations in decision making and information processing have been implicated in neuropsychiatric diseases like schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and depression. Importantly, dysregulations in nucleus accumbens core (NAc core) dopamine signaling onto medium spiny neurons (MSNs) constitute a key neural mechanism underlying these aberrant processes. Currently, NAc core research disproportionately focuses on the motivation and reward-learning aspects of decision making. There is, however, strong evidence that decision making involves more complex information-processing: making a decision requires evaluation of actual outcomes but also requires prospection and retrospection on imagined alternate outcomes. Therefore, it is important to investigate the role of dopamine release and MSN activity in information processing when agents prospectively imagine potential outcomes before making a decision through deliberation and when agents retrospectively imagine what could have been in the “path untraveled” (counterfactual reasoning) or imagine poor time investments (sunk cost processing) after making a decision through reevaluation. Our understanding of how NAc core dopamine encodes these imagined outcomes during prospective deliberation and retrospective reevaluation is lacking greatly because there have not been behavioral tools with the complexity to probe the mechanisms contributing to this type of information-processing in rodents. Innovative work in the Redish lab has led to the development of a rodent behavioral task, called Restaurant Row, whose intricacy allows for in-depth behavioral analysis of neuroeconomic behaviors. This proposal aims to elucidate how NAc core dopamine dynamics reflect deliberation, counterfactual reasoning and sunk cost evaluation by 1) simultaneous monitoring of in vivo dopamine release and MSN activity using fiber photometry 2) manipulating endogenous dopamine signaling at specific points in decision making. Restaurant Row has tremendous translational potential and has been adapted for non-human primates and humans. Thus, the work proposed here will contribute to a larger translational collaboration in the future to investigate these questions across species through collaboration with my clinical mentors in the Department of Psychiatry. My advisors Dr. David Redish and Dr. Patrick Rothwell are equipped to mentor me both technically and professionally and together we have curated a training plan that perfectly aligns with my career goals. By incorporating pioneering techniques into a translational project in such an interdisciplinary environment will provide the training I need to develop become a successful physician-scientist contributing to the field of computational psychiatry.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $20,008 )
2026	2026	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA	2221 UNIVERSITY AVE SE STE 100	MINNEAPOLIS	MN	55414	HENNEPIN	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	5	2/9/2026	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$19,720
2026	2026	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA	2221 UNIVERSITY AVE SE STE 100	MINNEAPOLIS	MN	55414	HENNEPIN	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	001	5	5/6/2026	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$288
														Subtotal = $20,008

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $42,791 )
2025	2025	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA	200 OAK ST SE	MINNEAPOLIS	MN	55455	HENNEPIN	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	4	12/3/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$42,227
2025	2025	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA	2221 UNIVERSITY AVE SE STE 100	MINNEAPOLIS	MN	55414	HENNEPIN	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	001	4	9/8/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$564
														Subtotal = $42,791

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2024	2023	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA	200 OAK ST SE	MINNEAPOLIS	MN	55455	HENNEPIN	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	3	12/6/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $52,694 )
2023	2023	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA	200 OAK ST SE # 224	MINNEAPOLIS	MN	55455	HENNEPIN	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	3	5/4/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$52,694
														Subtotal = $52,694

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $51,753 )
2022	2022	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA	200 OAK ST SE # 224	MINNEAPOLIS	MN	55455	HENNEPIN	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	2	5/11/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$51,753
														Subtotal = $51,753

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $50,274 )
2021	2021	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA	200 OAK ST SE # 224	MINNEAPOLIS	MN	55455	HENNEPIN	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	001	1	4/6/2021	NEW	$0
2021	2021	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA	200 OAK ST SE # 224	MINNEAPOLIS	MN	55455	HENNEPIN	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	1	12/14/2020	NEW	$50,274
														Subtotal = $50,274

Grand Total All Awards = $217,520

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Dopaminergic modulation of nucleus accumbens during prospective and retrospective neuroeconomic decision making

Award Number: F30MH124404

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: FELLOWSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP/STUDENT LOANS

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 05/31/2021

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 05/14/2026

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer