Circulating insulin levels dynamically modulate striatal DAT activity, with decreased DA uptake and DAT surface expression seen in animal models of diabetes and after food restriction (FR 20,21.
Petersen, A., et al. "Mice transgenic for exon1 of the Huntington's disease gene display reduced striatal sensitivity to neurotoxicity induced by dopamine and 6-hydroxydopamine". 2001.
Together, the regions in this network, including the OFC, pallidum, amygdala, hippocampus, and temporal pole, integrate information related to reward processing, emotion, and memory to modulate striatal activity [15].
Variations of DA concentration can modulate striatal death in various models [5], [6], [7].
Nonetheless, it has been questioned as to whether such manipulations could somehow coincidentally modulate striatal functions.
Cdk5 has been suggested to both increase [41], [42] and decrease [43] neurotransmitter release and modulate striatal neuron excitability [1].
However, our understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms employed by DA neurons to modulate striatal function remains incomplete.
We predicted that feedback would engage the striatum and that beliefs about task difficulty would modulate striatal feedback responses during learning.
Our finding that achievement goals and contextual information can jointly influence striatal sensitivity to feedback during learning fits within the broader picture of research showing modulation of striatal reward responses by individual differences in motivation and goals.
Specifically, in the caudate and putamen, normative goals were positively correlated with a larger effect of expectations on striatal sensitivity to feedback valence.
