Dopaminergic D2 receptor modulation of striatal cholinergic interneurons contributes to sequence learning.

electrophysiology this work shows that genetic deletion of D2 receptors from striatal cholinergic interneurons disrupts the learning, performance, and encoding of action sequences, without changing general locomotion or motor skill learning. Virally replacing D2 receptors specifically in dorsal striatal cholinergic interneurons is sufficient to rescue the sequence behavior. Our observations may be useful in understanding and treating movement disorders in which dopamine and acetylcholine are imbalanced.