Beyond movement, the cerebellum may contribute to the anticipation of rewards

by Ingrid Fadelli, Medical Xpress

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Over the course of their lives, humans and other animals can learn to connect specific actions or cues to a desirable outcome. This process, called reward learning, is known to play a role in some mental health conditions, particularly substance use disorders (SUDs).

Understanding how the brain learns to associate specific behaviors with rewards could help identify neural processes that contribute to SUDs and other conditions associated with compulsive reward-seeking behaviors. Recent studies have shown that the cerebellum, a brain region best known for its role in coordination and movement, also becomes active when animals and humans receive rewards.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health and Brown University recently studied mice to better understand the cerebellum's role in reward learning. Their paper, published in Nature Neuroscience, reports evidence that the cerebellum helps mice not only coordinate their movements to obtain a reward but also anticipate rewards.

"Although the cerebellum is still primarily thought of as a 'movement control center,' we, like others, have become increasingly interested in its role in reward-seeking," Mark J. Wagner, senior author of the paper, told Medical Xpress.

"Humans routinely pursue 'abstract' rewards—that is, rewards that do not need to be physically consumed. But experiments that let us observe and manipulate specific neural pathways are most readily performed in mice, where rewards are usually food or water. Because mice must eat or drink those rewards, 'reward-related' neural activity is difficult to distinguish from activity related to physical reward consumption."

Exploring the role of the cerebellum in reward anticipation

To investigate the cerebellum's role in reward learning, Wagner and his colleagues used a modified version of a classic experimental approach. They trained mice to push a handle for a delayed reward while monitoring the activity of cerebellar cells.

"The mice perform an action for delayed stimulation of dopamine-related reward circuitry in the brain, with nothing to eat or drink," Wagner explained. "Our objective was to determine whether cerebellar circuits encode expectation and receipt of rewards when no physical consumption is needed, and whether those signals help drive motivated behavior."

During the experiments, mice learned to push a small handle to receive a delayed reward that was not food or water. One or two seconds after a successful push, the researchers stimulated a dopamine-related brain reward pathway using either electrical stimulation or light.

While the mice performed the reward-learning task, the researchers monitored activity in the cerebellum's two major input streams, known as granule cells and climbing fibers. They used two-photon calcium imaging, a microscopy technique that allows neuroscientists to observe activity in brain cells.

"We found that when mice had to wait longer for dopamine reward, their granule cell activity lasted longer," Wagner explained. "When we compared dopamine rewards with water rewards, neural activity was broadly similar. Finally, we tested cause and effect. We found that silencing granule cells during the waiting period impaired learning, while activating climbing fibers reinforced pushing at moderate rates in naive mice."

Enriching our understanding of reward learning

The researchers found that granule cells in the cerebellum became active while mice anticipated dopamine rewards. When the mice had to wait longer, the cells remained active longer, a pattern also observed in experiments that used water as a reward.

"We found that climbing fibers activated when mice received dopamine rewards, also similarly to water," Wagner said. "When we suppressed animals' granule cell activity prior to dopamine reward, they exhibited impaired push-for-dopamine learning. When we activated the climbing fibers of naive mice after they pushed the handle, they learned to continue pushing."

The study indicates that the cerebellum could play a greater role in reward-seeking behavior than some earlier studies suggested. Future research could build on the team's findings by further examining the link between cerebellar granule cells and climbing fibers.

"We think our findings show that the cerebellum activates during and actively contributes to the learning and execution of reward-seeking behavior," Wagner added. "We are now interested in exploring whether these results might link the cerebellum to aberrant reward-seeking conditions, such as compulsive reward-seeking, which in humans can manifest as gambling or drug or alcohol seeking."

Written for you by our author Ingrid Fadelli, edited by Gaby Clark, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Egan—this article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You'll get an ad-free account as a thank-you.

Publication details

Benjamin A. Filio et al, Predictive and instructive cerebellar encoding of dopamine reward drives motivated behavior, Nature Neuroscience (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-026-02449-z

Journal information: Nature Neuroscience

Key medical concepts

Cerebellum

Clinical categories

NeurologyPsychology & Mental health Who's behind this story?

Ingrid Fadelli

Freelance journalist with BSc Psychology and MA International Journalism. Covers AI, robotics, neuroscience, and astrophysics since 2018. Full profile →

Gaby Clark

MA in English, copy editor since 2021 with experience in higher education and health content. Dedicated to trustworthy science news. Full profile →

Robert Egan

Bachelor's in mathematical biology, Master's in creative writing. Well-traveled with unique perspectives on science and language. Full profile →

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