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Real-time chemical responses in the nucleus accumbens differentiate rewarding and aversive stimuli

Nature Neuroscience volume 11, pages 1376–1377 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Rewarding and aversive stimuli evoke very different patterns of behavior and are rapidly discriminated. Here taste stimuli of opposite hedonic valence evoked opposite patterns of dopamine and metabolic activity within milliseconds in the nucleus accumbens. This rapid encoding may serve to guide ongoing behavioral responses and promote plastic changes in underlying circuitry.

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Figure 1: Average fluctuations in chemical signaling in response to rewarding and aversive taste stimuli.
Figure 2

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank M.L.A.V. Heien for programming assistance, S. Ng-Evans and S.A. Wescott for technical assistance, and B.J. Aragona for review of this manuscript. This work was supported by US National Institute on Drug Abuse grants (DA018298 to M.F.R., DA10900 to R.M.W. and DA17318 to R.M.C.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1007 W Harrison St. Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Chicago, 60607, Illinois, USA

    Mitchell F Roitman

  2. Department of Psychology, CB3270, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 27599, North Carolina, USA

    Robert A Wheeler & Regina M Carelli

  3. Department of Chemistry, CB3290, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 27599, North Carolina, USA

    R Mark Wightman

  4. Neuroscience Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 27599, North Carolina, USA

    R Mark Wightman & Regina M Carelli

  5. Curriculum in Neurobiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 27599, North Carolina, USA

    R Mark Wightman & Regina M Carelli

Authors
  1. Mitchell F Roitman
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  2. Robert A Wheeler
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  3. R Mark Wightman
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  4. Regina M Carelli
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Contributions

M.F.R. and R.A.W. conducted the behavioral and electrochemical experiments and carried out data and graphical analyses. M.F.R. wrote the manuscript and R.A.W., R.M.W. and R.M.C. contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mitchell F Roitman.

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Supplementary Figures 1–6 and Supplementary Methods (PDF 655 kb)

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Roitman, M., Wheeler, R., Wightman, R. et al. Real-time chemical responses in the nucleus accumbens differentiate rewarding and aversive stimuli. Nat Neurosci 11, 1376–1377 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2219

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