Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jun 25;45(26):e0061252025.
doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0061-25.2025.

Modulation of Dopamine Neurons Alters Behavior and Event Encoding in the Nucleus Accumbens during Pavlovian Conditioning

Ethan W Herring  1 , Kira B Lear  1 , Sandford Zeng  1 , Elin F B McLaughlin  1 , Tulasi Syamala  1 , Eesha D Patel  1 , Kyle Duffer  1 , Sara E Morrison  2
Affiliations

Modulation of Dopamine Neurons Alters Behavior and Event Encoding in the Nucleus Accumbens during Pavlovian Conditioning

Ethan W Herring et al. J Neurosci. .

Abstract

When a cue is located away from its associated reward, some animals will learn to approach the site of reward (goal-tracking behavior) while others will approach the cue (sign-tracking behavior). The acquisition of sign tracking, but not goal tracking, is dependent on dopamine in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), and we have previously demonstrated that reward-evoked activity in the NAc core may reflect different patterns of dopamine release in sign tracker versus goal tracker individuals. However, a causal relationship among dopamine release, NAc activity, and sign tracking has not been established. Using male and female TH::Cre rats, we expressed inhibitory or excitatory opsins in dopamine neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and examined the impact of optical manipulation of dopamine neurons on behavior and concurrent NAc neuronal activity. We found that inhibition of VTA dopamine neurons at the time of reward suppressed the acquisition of sign-tracking, but not goal-tracking, behavior. On the other hand, stimulation of dopamine neurons did not alter the acquisition of sign tracking; however, cessation of stimulation impeded further acquisition of sign tracking. Finally, both inhibition and stimulation of VTA dopamine neurons rapidly modulated activity in a subset of NAc neurons and led to changes in cue- and reward-related activity across sessions. Overall, these findings support the ideas that sign tracking and goal tracking are the products of two different learning processes-one dopamine-dependent and one not-and that the impact of VTA dopamine on sign tracking may be mediated by activity in the NAc core.

Keywords: Pavlovian; dopamine; nucleus accumbens; optogenetic; reward; sign tracking.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

References

    1. Barr AM, Phillips AG (2002) Increased successive negative contrast in rats withdrawn from an escalating-dose schedule of D-amphetamine. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 71:293–299. 10.1016/S0091-3057(01)00664-5 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bayer HM, Glimcher PW (2005) Midbrain dopamine neurons encode a quantitative reward prediction error signal. Neuron 47:129–141. 10.1016/j.neuron.2005.05.020 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Berridge KC (2004) Motivation concepts in behavioral neuroscience. Physiol Behav 81:179–209. 10.1016/j.physbeh.2004.02.004 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Boakes RA (1977) Performance on learning to associate a stimulus with positive reinforcement. In: Operant-Pavlovian interactions (Davis H, Hurwitz HMB, eds), pp 67–97. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
    1. Chow JJ, Nickell JR, Darna M, Beckmann JS (2016) Toward isolating the role of dopamine in the acquisition of incentive salience attribution. Neuropharmacology 109:320–331. 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2016.06.028 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources