Mesolimbic dopamine projections mediate cue-motivated reward seeking but not reward retrieval in rats.

ABSTRACT: Efficient foraging requires an ability to coordinate discrete reward-seeking and reward-retrieval behaviors. We used pathway-specific chemogenetic inhibition to investigate how rats' mesolimbic and mesocortical dopamine circuits contribute to the expression and modulation of reward seeking and retrieval. Inhibiting ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons disrupted the tendency for reward-paired cues to motivate reward seeking, but spared their ability to increase attempts to retrieve reward. Similar effects were produced by inhibiting dopamine inputs to nucleus accumbens, but not medial prefrontal cortex. Inhibiting dopamine neurons spared the suppressive effect of reward devaluation on reward seeking, an assay of goal-directed behavior. Attempts to retrieve reward persisted after devaluat

SUBMITTER: Halbout B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6548499 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature