Cue and Reward Evoked Dopamine Activity Is Necessary for Maintaining Learned Pavlovian Associations

Associating natural rewards with predictive environmental cues is crucial for survival. Dopamine (DA) neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) are thought to play a crucial role in this process by encoding reward prediction errors (RPEs) that have been hypothesized to play a role in associative learning. However, it is unclear whether this signal is still necessary after animals have acquired a cue-reward association. In order to investigate this, we trained mice to learn a Pavlovian cue-reward association. After learning, mice show robust anticipatory and consummatory licking behavior. As expected, calcium activity of VTA DA neurons goes up for cue presentation as well as reward delivery. Optogenetic inhibition during the moment of reward delivery disrupts learned behavior, even in the continued presence of reward. This effect is more pronounced over trials and persists on the next training day. Moreover, outside of the task licking behavior and locomotion are unaffected. Similarly to inhibitions during the reward period, we find that inhibiting cue-induced dopamine (DA) signals robustly decreases learned licking behavior, indicating that cue-related DA signals are a potent driver for learned behavior. Overall, we show that inhibition of either of these DA signals directly impairs the expression of learned associative behavior. Thus, continued DA signaling in a learned state is necessary for consolidating Pavlovian associations.

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP Medicinska och farmaceutiska grundvetenskaper Neurovetenskaper hsv//swe
MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES Basic Medicine Neurosciences hsv//eng
dopamine
optogenetics
Pavlovian conditioning
reward prediction error
ventral tegmental area
nucleus-accumbens dopamine
ventral tegmental area
gaba neurons
acquisition
activation
prediction
behavior
release
seeking
food
Neurosciences & Neurology

Flores-Dourojeanni, J. P. (författare)
Eekel, T. (författare)
van den Reijen, S. (författare)
Lodder, B. (författare)
Omrani, A. (författare)
Smidt, M. P. (författare)
Ramakers, G. M. J. (författare)
van der Plasse, G. (författare)
Stuber, G. D. (författare)
Adan, Roger A. H.Gothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för neurovetenskap och fysiologi,Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology(Swepub:gu)xadaro (författare)
Göteborgs universitetInstitutionen för neurovetenskap och fysiologi (creator_code:org_t)

Ingår i:Journal of Neuroscience: Society for Neuroscience41:23, s. 5004-50140270-64741529-2401

Av författaren/redakt...: van Zessen, R.; Flores-Dourojean ...; Eekel, T.; van den Reijen, ...; Lodder, B.; Omrani, A.; visa fler...; Smidt, M. P.; Ramakers, G. M. ...; van der Plasse, ...; Stuber, G. D.; Adan, Roger A. H ...; visa färre...

Om ämnet

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP: MEDICIN OCH HÄLS ...; och Medicinska och f ...; och Neurovetenskaper

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