Injection of a dopamine type 2 receptor antagonist into the dorsal striatum disrupts choices driven by previous outcomes, but not perceptual inference.

Decisions are often driven by a combination of immediate perception and previous experience. In this study, we investigated how these two sources of information are integrated and the neural systems that mediate this process. Specifically, we injected a dopamine type 1 antagonist (D1A; SCH23390) or a dopamine type 2 antagonist (D2A; eticlopride) into the dorsal striatum while macaques performed a task in which their choices were driven by perceptual inference and/or reinforcement of past choices. We found that the D2A affected choices based on previous outcomes. However, there were no effects of the D2A on choices driven by perceptual inference. We found that the D1A did not affect perceptual inference or reinforcement learning. Finally, a Bayesian model applied to the results suggested that the D2A may be increasing noise in the striatal representation of value, perhaps by disrupting the striatal population that normally represents value.