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
Lever Press for Sucrose Task
Objective: To determine the temporal relationship between dopamine signaling in the nucleus accumbens and food-seeking behavior by measuring dopamine release during lever pressing for sucrose reward
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Equipment3
Materials1
Not specified • Not specified • Not specified • Not specified
Software1
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Protocol Steps
Rat training on lever press task
Rats were trained to press a lever to obtain sucrose reward
Note: Training period duration not provided in text
View evidence from paper
“rats trained to press a lever for sucrose”
Cue presentation to trained rats
Cues signaling opportunity to respond for sucrose were presented to rats trained with cue-sucrose pairing
Note: Cues evoked dopamine release in trained rats but not in naive rats
View evidence from paper
“Cues that signal the opportunity to respond for sucrose evoked dopamine release”
Cue presentation to naive rats
Same cues were presented to rats naive to the cue-sucrose pairing as control
Note: Naive rats did not show dopamine signals to cues
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 was sampled every 100 milliseconds using fast-scan cyclic voltammetry at carbon-fiber microelectrodes in nucleus accumbens during lever pressing and sucrose consumption
Note: Measurements captured subsecond temporal dynamics of dopamine signaling
View evidence from paper
“sampled dopamine every 100 msec using fast-scan cyclic voltammetry at carbon-fiber microelectrodes in the nucleus accumbens”