biostudies-literatureSchall TAU.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)NIDA NIH HHSU.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute on Drug AbuseNINDS NIH HHS9285https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC11519475biostudies-literatureUnknown15(1)The nucleus accumbens (NAc) regulates reward-motivated behavior, but the temporal dynamics of NAc neurons that enable "free-willed" animals to obtain rewards remain elusive. Here, we recorded Ca²⁺ activity from individual NAc neurons when mice performed self-paced lever-presses for sucrose. NAc neurons exhibited three temporally-sequenced clusters, defined by times at which they exhibited increased Ca²⁺ activity: approximately 0, -2.5 or -5 sec relative to the lever-pressing. Dopamine D1 receptor (D1)-expressing neurons and D2-neurons formed the majority of the -5-sec versus -2.5-sec clusters, respectively, while both neuronal subtypes were represented in the 0-sec cluster. We found that pre-press activity patterns of D1- or D2-neurons could predict subsequent lever-pNature communicationsTemporal dynamics of nucleus accumbens neurons in male mice during reward seeking.PMC11519475DA60868DA51010DA46491T32 NS007433R01 DA046491DA53388DA23206R21 DA051010R01 DA040620R01 DA060868K99 DA053388R01 DA023206R00 DA053388DA40620R37 DA023206Alpaugh EELiu JDong YWright WJLi QLee BTNestler EJZhao RJWang LZeng BSchall TAHuang YHNieh EHQi XSchluter OMLi KLfalseTemporal dynamics of nucleus accumbens neurons in male mice during reward seeking.The nucleus accumbens (NAc) regulates reward-motivated behavior, but the temporal dynamics of NAc neurons that enable "free-willed" animals to obtain rewards remain elusive. Here, we recorded Ca²⁺ activity from individual NAc neurons when mice performed self-paced lever-presses for sucrose. NAc neurons exhibited three temporally-sequenced clusters, defined by times at which they exhibited increased Ca²⁺ activity: approximately 0, -2.5 or -5 sec relative to the lever-pressing. Dopamine D1 receptor (D1)-expressing neurons and D2-neurons formed the majority of the -5-sec versus -2.5-sec clusters, respectively, while both neuronal subtypes were represented in the 0-sec cluster. We found that pre-press activity patterns of D1- or D2-neurons could predict subsequent lever-p2024-01-01T00:00:00Z2024 Oct2026-07-15T17:45:54.775Z2025-04-04T03:01:33.698ZS-EPMC115194753946814610.1038/s41467-024-53690-8