Dopamine release in nucleus accumbens core during social behaviors in mice

Abstract

Social behaviors are among the most important and rewarding motivational behaviors. How dopamine, a "reward" signal, releases in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) during social behaviors has become a topic of interest for decades. However, limitations in early recording methods, such as microdialysis, prevented a complete understanding of moment-to-moment dopamine responses during social behaviors. Here, we employ a genetically encoded dopamine sensor, GRABDA2h, to record dopamine activity in the NAc core in mice and find acute changes in extracellular dopamine levels during all three phases of social behaviors: approach, investigation and consummation. Dopamine release during approach phase correlates with animal's motivation towards the conspecific whereas its release during consummatory phase signals the valence of the experience. Furthermore, dopamine release during sexual and aggressive behaviors shows sex differences that correlate with the potential value of those experiences. Overall, our results reveal rich and temporally precise motivation and value information encoded by NAc dopamine during social behaviors and beyond.

Striatal dopamine explains novelty-induced behavioral dynamics and individual variability in threat prediction

“…Nonetheless, discrete approachretreat bouts in our novelty paradigms can be regarded as being equivalent to ''trials'' in more structured behavioral paradigms, albeit with a critical difference in that the animal can control ''task'' structure. Our results support the possibility that the non-canonical dopamine signals found in the TS work as an evaluation signal, even in a naturalistic setting, in a manner similar to canonical dopamine signals observed in many structured tasks (Cohen et al, 2012;Glimcher, 2011;Schultz, 2015) or during social interactions (Dai et al, 2021;Gunaydin et al, 2014). Further, dopamine in the TS, although signaling totally different information from canonical dopamine, may facilitate salience prediction (threat prediction if salience is too strong) in a similar manner to which canonical dopamine facilitates reward prediction.…”

Behavioral and dopaminergic signatures of resilience

“…6c). This is consistent with aggressor proximity being aversive and the end of proximal encounters providing positive "relief" [45][46][47][48][49] . The magnitudes of decrease at proximity onset and increase at the offset were related to susceptibility, suggesting that susceptible individuals experience more aversion to aggressor encounters and relief when encounters ended (Fig.…”

Hearing, touching, and multisensory integration during mate choice

“…The extent to which DA is indeed a reward signal resulting from sexual stimulation has been challenged by pharmacological studies in rats which failed to induce a conditioned partner preference after the application of a DA antagonist (for an in-depth opinion see Paredes, 2009 ). Recent mice studies making use of DA sensors (Dai et al, 2021 ) in combination with cellular specificity and high temporal resolution tools (Beny-Shefer et al, 2017 ), however, rather favor an anticipatory role of DA during sexual stimulation and a clear necessity of DA transmission in the mesolimbic pathway during male mate choice (Beny-Shefer et al, 2017 ).…”