Source Paper
Dopamine Operates as a Subsecond Modulator of Food Seeking
Mitchell F. Roitman, Garret D. Stuber, Paul E. M. Phillips, R. Mark Wightman, Regina M. Carelli
Journal of Neuroscience • 2004
Cue-Evoked Dopamine Response Analysis
Objective: To assess dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens in response to cues signaling opportunity to respond for sucrose, comparing trained versus naive rats to determine the temporal relationship between dopamine changes and food-seeking behavior
This is a Cue-Evoked Dopamine Response Analysis protocol using rat as the model organism. The procedure involves 5 procedural steps, 2 equipment items, 2 materials. Extracted from a 2004 paper published in Journal of Neuroscience.
Model and subjects
rat • Not specified • unknown • Not specified • Not specified
Study window
Estimated timing pending
Core workflow
Lever training • Cue presentation to trained rats • Dopamine measurement during cue presentation
Primary readouts
- Dopamine concentration in nucleus accumbens (measured in nanomolar units)
- Latency to dopamine release onset (measured in seconds)
- Temporal relationship between dopamine surges and lever pressing behavior
- Dopamine response in trained versus naive rats
Key equipment and reagents
Use this page as an execution guide, then fall back to the source paper whenever you need exact exclusions, dosing details, or assay-specific caveats.
Confirm first
- Verify the animal model, intervention setup, and collection timepoints against the source paper.
- Check that every direct vendor link matches the exact specification your lab plans to run.
Use the page like this
- Work through the protocol steps in order and use the inline vendor chips only when you need to source or verify an item.
- Jump to Experimental Context for readouts, data shape, and analysis flow before planning downstream analysis.
Protocol Steps
Start here. The step list is optimized for running the experiment, with direct vendor links available inline when you need to source a cited item.
Lever training
Rats were trained to press a lever for sucrose reinforcement to establish the learned association between lever pressing and reward
Note: This training phase established the cue-sucrose pairing that was later tested
View evidence from paper
“rats trained to press a lever for sucrose”
Cue presentation to trained rats
Cues signaling the opportunity to respond for sucrose were presented to rats that had been trained on the lever-sucrose association
Note: These rats had learned the association between cues and sucrose availability
View evidence from paper
“Cues that signal the opportunity to respond for sucrose evoked dopamine release”
Dopamine measurement during cue presentation
Dopamine was sampled every 100 milliseconds using fast-scan cyclic voltammetry at carbon-fiber microelectrodes in the nucleus accumbens during cue presentation
Note: Measurements captured subsecond temporal dynamics of dopamine release
View evidence from paper
“sampled dopamine every 100 msec using fast-scan cyclic voltammetry at carbon-fiber microelectrodes in the nucleus accumbens”
Cue presentation to naive rats
The same cues were presented to rats that were naive to the cue-sucrose pairing to serve as a control condition
Note: These rats had no prior experience with the cue-sucrose association
View evidence from paper
“When the same cues were presented to rats naive to the cue-sucrose pairing, similar dopamine signals were not observed”
Dopamine measurement during lever pressing
Dopamine levels were monitored during lever pressing behavior and subsequent sucrose delivery and consumption
Note: Measurements tracked dopamine dynamics across the complete behavioral sequence
View evidence from paper
“Lever presses for sucrose occurred at the peak of the dopamine surges. After lever presses, and while sucrose was delivered and consumed, no further increases in dopamine were detected”