There's no place like home? Return to the home cage triggers dopamine release in the mouse nucleus accumbens.

ABSTRACT: Various stimuli have been employed as reinforcers in preclinical rodent models to elucidate the underpinnings of reward at a molecular and circuit level, with the release of dopamine (DA) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) as a well-replicated, physiological correlate. Many factors, however, including strain differences, sex, prior stress, and reinforcer administration protocols can influence reward responding and DA release. Although previous evidence indicates that access to the home cage can be an effective reinforcer in behavioral tasks, whether this simple environmental manipulation can trigger DA release in the NAc has not been demonstrated. Here, using fiber photometric recordings of in vivo NAc dopamine release from a genetically-encoded DA sensor, we show that the movement of animals

SUBMITTER: Mayer FP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7779706 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature