Acetylcholine demixes heterogeneous dopamine signals for learning and moving

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 25 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02227-x

Jang et al. measured dopamine and acetylcholine release in the striatum of rats performing a decision-making task and found that the relative timing of cholinergic and dopamine release gates whether dopamine promotes reinforcement learning or movement vigor.