title: Mesolimbic Dopamine Encodes Prediction Errors in a State-Dependent Manner.
abstract: Mesolimbic dopamine encodes the benefits of a course of action. However, the value of an appetitive reward depends strongly on an animal's current state. To investigate the relationship between dopamine, value, and physiological state, we monitored sub-second dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens core while rats made choices between food and sucrose solution following selective satiation on one of these reinforcers. Dopamine signals reflected preference for the reinforcers in the new state, decreasing to the devalued reward and, after satiation on food, increasing for the valued sucrose solution. These changes were rapid and selective, with dopamine release returning to pre-satiation patterns when the animals were re-tested in a standard food-restricted state. Such rapid and selective adaptation of dopamine-associated value signals could provide an important signal to promote efficient foraging for a varied diet.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, 9 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK. Electronic address: georgios.papageorgiou@psy.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Georgios K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Papageorgiou
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, 9 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK.
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Baudonnat
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, 9 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK; Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Via Ospedale 72, 09124 Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Flavia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cucca
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, 9 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK. Electronic address: mark.walton@psy.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Mark E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Walton
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003463:Cues; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000502:physiology*; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012201:Reward; D012528:Satiety Response; D012677:Sensation; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
chemical_list: D004298:Dopamine