Slow-Timescale Regulation of Dopamine Release and Mating Drive Over Days.

ABSTRACT: The rise and fall of motivational states may take place over timescales as long as many days. We used mouse mating behavior to model how the brain orchestrates slow-timescale changes in motivation. Male mice become sexually satiated after successful matings, and their motivation to mate gradually recovers over a week. Using deep-brain fluorescence-lifetime imaging in the medial preoptic area (MPOA), we found that tonic dopamine transmission-which regulates mating drive-also declined after mating and re-emerged over a week. Two mechanisms regulated dopamine transmission. First, successful mating transiently reduced tonic firing of hypothalamic dopamine-releasing neurons, thereby inhibiting dopamine release and mating behavior. Second, mating reduced the ability of these neurons to produce a

SUBMITTER: Sunkavalli PS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12157444 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature