Research paperBehaviourial neurosienceNucleus accumbens dopamine release is necessary and sufficient to promote the behavioral response to reward-predictive cues
Section snippets
Animals
Male Long-Evans rats (275g) were obtained from Harlan (Indianapolis, IN, UA) and maintained on a 12-h light/dark cycle; experiments were performed during the light phase. Upon receipt, animals were allowed at least 1 week of ad libitum food and water before being placed on a restricted diet. Except where indicated, this consisted of 13g of BioServ pellets (1g each) and 20ml of water each day. Training began after 1 week of restriction. All procedures were approved by the Ernest Gallo Clinic &
Results
During experimental sessions, both PS cues (15% of correct responses to the cue were rewarded) and DS cues (100% of correct responses to the cue were rewarded) were presented in random order (Fig. 1A). Whereas animals responded to nearly 100% of DS presentations, they responded to only about 50% of PS presentations. The PS response probability was clearly dependent on the occasional reinforcement of PS responses and was not due to stimulus generalization from the DS to the PS. Three
Discussion
In the PS-DS task, animals responded to nearly all DS presentations, but responded to only approximately 50% of PS presentations. This behavior is consistent with previous observations that animals “match” their responding to the probability that reward will result from a particular action (Staddon and Cerutti, 2003). In this case, animals overmatched, since the response probability (50%) was greater than the reward probability (15%). The substantial degree of overmatching is likely due to the
Conclusion
In summary, the dopamine reuptake blocker GBR12909 specifically increased cue response probability in a task where animals respond to about half of cue presentations. The dopamine D1 receptor antagonist SCH23390 reduced responding to such cues. These results support the hypothesis that dopamine release in the NAc is necessary and sufficient for responding to reward-predictive cues, and therefore that NAc dopamine release causes animals to respond to such cues.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by funds provided by the State of California for medical research on alcohol and substance abuse through the University of California, San Francisco; by the Wheeler Center for the Neurobiology of Addiction; by the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center and by NIDA grants to H.L.F. We thank G. Hjelmstad for helpful discussions and K. Wakabayashi for technical assistance.
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(Available online 13 September 2005)