ArticlePsychopharmacology2017
Social defeat disrupts reward learning and potentiates striatal nociceptin/orphanin FQ mRNA in rats.
Article in Psychopharmacology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of the role of the nociceptin receptor system in stress, cognition, and reward: relevance to schizophrenia.Translational psychiatry · 2018Pooled it
- Nociceptin orphanin F/Q Pathways are dysregulated by stress and modulate reward responsiveness and motivated behavior across species.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Preclinical models for evaluating psychedelics in the treatment of major depressive disorder.British journal of pharmacology · 2026Review
- Probing biomarkers and clinical utility of reward learning across species using the Probabilistic Reward Task: 20 years of findings.Nature. Mental health · 2026Article
- A human-derived Bacteroides strain attenuates depressive-like behavior in a rat model of social defeat-induced stress.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Reverse Translation.Perspectives on behavior science · 2026Article
- The development of translational tasks for preclinical psychedelic research in psychiatry.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026Review
- Comprehensive and In-Depth Molecular and Pathway Studies of the Hippocampus in Alzheimer's Disease.Cellular and molecular neurobiology · 2025Article
- Environmental determinants of ketamine's prohedonic and antianhedonic efficacy: Persistence of enhanced reward responsiveness is modulated by chronic stress.The Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics · 2025Article
- A review of the effects of different types of social behaviors on the recruitment of neuropeptides and neurotransmitters in the nucleus accumbens.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2025Review
- Developmental and Adult Striatal Patterning of Nociceptin Ligand Marks Striosomal Population With Direct Dopamine Projections.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2024Article
- Chronic ecologically relevant stress effects on reverse-translated touchscreen assays of reward responsivity and attentional processes in male rats: Implications for depression.Journal of neurochemistry · 2024Article
- Activation of NOP receptor increases vulnerability to stress: role of glucocorticoids and CRF signaling.Psychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Validation of a touchscreen probabilistic reward task for mice: A reverse-translated assay with cross-species continuity.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2024Article
- Stressful Life Events and Reward Processing in Adults: Moderation by Depression and Anhedonia.Depression and anxiety · 2024Article
- Stress to inflammation and anhedonia: Mechanistic insights from preclinical and clinical models.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- BTRX-246040 Acts Through the Ventrolateral Periaqueductal Gray to Exert Antidepressant-Relevant Actions in Mice.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Article
- Stress-Induced Changes in the Endogenous Opioid System Cause Dysfunction of Pain and Emotion Regulation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Maternal neglect alters reward-anticipatory behavior, social status stability, and reward circuit activation in adult male rats.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- Effects of dopamine modulation on chronic stress-induced deficits in reward learning.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleMood disorders can be triggered by stress and are characterized by deficits in reward processing, including disrupted reward learning (the ability to modulate behavior according to past rewards). Reward learning is regulated by the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and striatal circuits, both of which are implicated in the pathophysiology of mood disorders.
objectivesHere, we assessed in rats the effects of a potent stressor (social defeat) on reward learning and gene expression in the ACC, ventral tegmental area (VTA), and striatum.
methodsAdult male Wistar rats were trained on an operant probabilistic reward task (PRT) and then exposed to 3 days of social defeat before assessment of reward learning. After testing, the ACC, VTA, and striatum were dissected, and expression of genes previously implicated in stress was assessed.
resultSocial defeat blunted reward learning (manifested as reduced response bias toward a more frequently rewarded stimulus) and was associated with increased nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) peptide mRNA levels in the striatum and decreased Fos mRNA levels in the VTA. Moreover, N/OFQ peptide and nociceptin receptor mRNA levels in the ACC, VTA and striatum were inversely related to reward learning.
conclusionsThe behavioral findings parallel previous data in humans, suggesting that stress similarly disrupts reward learning in both species. Increased striatal N/OFQ mRNA in stressed rats characterized by impaired reward learning is consistent with accumulating evidence that antagonism of nociceptin receptors, which bind N/OFQ, has antidepressant-like effects. These results raise the possibility that nociceptin systems represent a molecular substrate through which stress produces reward learning deficits in mood disorders.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.