Regional specificity in the real-time development of phasic dopamine transmission patterns during acquisition of a cue-cocaine association in rats.

ABSTRACT: Drug seeking is significantly regulated by drug-associated cues and associative learning between environmental cues and cocaine reward is mediated by dopamine transmission within the nucleus accumbens (NAc). However, dopamine transmission during early acquisition of a cue-cocaine association has never been assessed because of the technical difficulties associated with resolving cue-evoked and cocaine-evoked dopamine release within the same conditioning trial. Here, we used fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to measure sub-second fluctuations in dopamine concentration within the NAc core and shell during the initial acquisition of a cue-cocaine Pavlovian association. Within the NAc core, cue-evoked dopamine release developed during conditioning. However, within the NAc shell, the predictive cue a

SUBMITTER: Aragona BJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2945681 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature