title: Accumbens D2: Raters of the Loss Outcome.
abstract: Zalocusky et al. (Nature 531:642-646, 2016) recently showed that activity in D2R+ cells in the nucleus accumbens is associated with loss sensitivity to prior outcomes and reduced subsequent risky choice, and that optogenetic stimulation of these cells decreased risky choices in risk-prone rats. While their findings are important for understanding trait-level risk-taking, future research should aim to examine the neuronal mechanisms of a broader range of facets of gain and loss processing with respect to different potential reference points.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, 492 Bluemont Hall, 1100 Mid-Campus Drive, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, 492 Bluemont Hall, 1100 Mid-Campus Drive, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA. kirkpatr@ksu.edu.
authors.forename: Kimberly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kirkpatrick
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D012309:Risk-Taking
keywords: Dopamine; Loss sensitivity; Nucleus accumbens; Probability discounting; Risky choice