Estrogen, Dopamine, and Learning.

Abstract

Estrogenic hormones act throughout the brain, yet the basic mechanisms by which hormones influence neural circuit dynamics and computations, especially during complex behaviors, are unclear. Exogenous estrogenic hormones modulate dopamine signaling in the nucleus accumbens, which is thought to promote synaptic plasticity for reward-based learning. We recently found that elevated estrogenic activity predicts enhanced phasic dopamine and behavioral sensitivity to past rewards that could be explained by reduced expression of dopamine reuptake proteins in the nucleus accumbens core. Our computational and decision theoretical approach allowed us to characterize estrogenic modulation of dopamine at broad levels of description and opens up new avenues of research on hormone-neuromodulatory interactions during cognitive behaviors.