Received: 2 January 2020 | Revised: 23 March 2020 | Accepted: 25 March 2020 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14745 SPECIAL ISSUE REVIEW The credit assignment problem in cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic networks: A review, a problem and a possible solution Jonathan E. Rubin1 | Catalina Vich2 | Matthew Clapp3 | Kendra Noneman4 | Timothy Verstynen3,5 1Department of Mathematics, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 2Department de Matemàtiques i Informàtica, Institute of Applied Computing and Community Code, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma, Spain 3Carnegie Mellon Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 4Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA 5Department of Psychology, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Correspondence Jonathan E. Rubin, Department of Abstract Mathematics, 301 Thackeray Hall, The question of how cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic (CBGT) pathways use dopamin- University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, ergic feedback signals to modify future decisions has challenged computational neu- USA. Email:
[email protected] roscientists for decades. Reviewing the literature on computational representations of dopaminergic corticostriatal plasticity, we show how the field is converging on a and Timothy Verstynen, Department of normative, synaptic-level learning algorithm that elegantly captures both neurophys- Psychology, 342c Baker Hall, Carnegie, iological properties