Mesolimbic dopamine dynamically tracks, and is causally linked to, discrete aspects of value-based decision making.

ABSTRACT:

Background

To make appropriate choices, organisms must weigh the costs and benefits of potential valuable outcomes, a process known to involve the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and its dopaminergic input. However, it is currently unknown if dopamine dynamically tracks alterations in expected reward value online as behavioral preferences change and if so, if it is causally linked to specific components of value such as reward magnitude and/or delay to reinforcement.

Methods

Electrochemical methods were used to measure subsecond NAc dopamine release during a delay discounting task where magnitude was fixed but delay varied across blocks (n = 7 rats). Next, to assess whether this dopamine signaling was causally related to specific components of choice behavior, we employed selective

SUBMITTER: Saddoris MP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4416981 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature