Long-lasting contribution of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens core, but not dorsal lateral striatum, to sign-tracking.

ABSTRACT: The attribution of incentive salience to reward-paired cues is dependent on dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens core (NAcC). These dopamine signals conform to traditional reward-prediction error signals and have been shown to diminish with time. Here we examined whether the diminishing dopamine signal in the NAcC has functional implications for the expression of sign-tracking, a Pavlovian conditioned response indicative of the attribution of incentive salience to reward-paired cues. Food-restricted male Sprague Dawley rats were trained in a Pavlovian paradigm in which an insertable lever predicted delivery of food reward in a nearby food cup. After 7 or 14 training sessions, rats received infusions of saline, the dopamine antagonist flupenthixol, or the GABA agonists baclofen and mus

SUBMITTER: Fraser KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5555814 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature