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Spontaneous behaviour is shaped by dopamine in two ways

The neurotransmitter dopamine has well-established roles in reward-driven behaviours, such as searching for food. The discovery that it also shapes spontaneous behaviour reveals parallels between these two phenomena.
  1. Dorgham Khatib

    1. Dorgham Khatib is in the Department of Neuroscience, Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, and at the Rappaport Family Institute for Research in the Medical Sciences, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 6423906, Israel.

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  2. Genela Morris

    1. Genela Morris is at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv 6423906, Israel.

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Some actions that people take are geared towards specific goals, and others are triggered by stimuli in the environment. However, much of our time is spent in spontaneous, self-motivated activity, which often takes the form of habitual actions. Although research has revealed a lot about how deliberate behaviours are learnt, much less is known about the way in which spontaneous behaviour is organized and turned into habits. Writing in Nature, Markowitz et al.1 show that spontaneous behaviour in mice is regulated by dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is better known for its role in reinforcing rewarding actions.

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Nature 614, 36-37 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00004-5

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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