Nucleus Accumbens Dopamine D1-Receptor-Expressing Neurons Control the Acquisition of Sign-Tracking to Conditioned Cues in Mice.

ABSTRACT: Following repeated pairings, the reinforcing and motivational properties (incentive salience) of a reward can be transferred onto an environmental stimulus which can then elicit conditioned responses, including Pavlovian approach behavior to the stimulus (a sign-tracking response). In rodents, acquisition of sign-tracking in autoshaping paradigms is sensitive to lesions and dopamine D1 receptor antagonism of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of the ventral striatum. However, currently, the possible roles of dorsal striatal subregions, as well as of the two major striatal neuron types, dopamine D1-/D2-expressing medium spiny neurons (MSNs), in controlling the development of conditioned responses is still unclear and warrants further study. Here, for the first time, we used a transgenic mouse line

SUBMITTER: Macpherson T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6021689 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature