ArticleAlcoholism, clinical and experimental research2018
Ethanol Exposure History and Alcoholic Reward Differentially Alter Dopamine Release in the Nucleus Accumbens to a Reward-Predictive Cue.
Article in Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Methamphetamine potentiates the use of outcome-specific associations via a hypothalamic-dopamine circuit.Neuron · 2026Article
- The effects of reward uncertainty and alcohol intoxication on human sign- and goal-tracking.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Stimuli predicting high-calorie reward increase dopamine release and drive approach to food in the absence of homeostatic need.Nutritional neuroscience · 2022Article
- Acute depletion of dopamine precursors in the human brain: effects on functional connectivity and alcohol attentional bias.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2021Article
- Dose-dependent effects of alcohol injections on omission-contingency learning have an inverted-U pattern.Behavioural brain research · 2020Article
- Behavioral, neurobiological, and neurochemical mechanisms of ethanol self-administration: A translational review.Pharmacology & therapeutics · 2020Review
- Ampicillin/Sulbactam Treatment Modulates NMDA Receptor NR2B Subunit and Attenuates Neuroinflammation and Alcohol Intake in Male High Alcohol Drinking Rats.Biomolecules · 2020Article
- Evidence for incentive salience sensitization as a pathway to alcohol use disorder.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2019Review
- Recruitment and disruption of ventral pallidal cue encoding during alcohol seeking.The European journal of neuroscience · 2019Article
- Voluntary alcohol access during adolescence/early adulthood, but not during adulthood, causes faster omission contingency learning.Behavioural brain research · 2019Article
- Electrochemistry at the Synapse.Annual review of analytical chemistry (Palo Alto, Calif.) · 2019Review
- Nicotine Produces a High-Approach, Low-Avoidance Phenotype in Response to Alcohol-Associated Cues in Male Rats.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundConditioned stimuli (CS) that predict reward delivery acquire the ability to induce phasic dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). This dopamine release may facilitate conditioned approach behavior, which often manifests as approach to the site of reward delivery (called "goal-tracking") or to the CS itself (called "sign-tracking"). Previous research has linked sign-tracking in particular to impulsivity and drug self-administration, and addictive drugs may promote the expression of sign-tracking. Ethanol (EtOH) acutely promotes phasic release of dopamine in the accumbens, but it is unknown whether an alcoholic reward alters dopamine release to a CS. We hypothesized that Pavlovian conditioning with an alcoholic reward would increase dopamine release triggered by the CS and subsequent sign-tracking behavior. Moreover, we predicted that chronic intermittent EtOH (CIE) exposure would promote sign-tracking while acute administration of naltrexone (NTX) would reduce it.
methodsRats received 14 doses of EtOH (3 to 5 g/kg, intragastric) or water followed by 6 days of Pavlovian conditioning training. Rewards were a chocolate solution with or without 10% (w/v) alcohol. We used fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to measure phasic dopamine release in the NAc core in response to the CS and the rewards. We also determined the effect of NTX (1 mg/kg, subcutaneous) on conditioned approach.
resultsBoth CIE and alcoholic reward, individually but not together, associated with greater dopamine to the CS than control conditions. However, this increase in dopamine release was not linked to greater sign-tracking, as both CIE and alcoholic reward shifted conditioned approach from sign-tracking behavior to goal-tracking behavior. However, they both also increased sensitivity to NTX, which reduced goal-tracking behavior.
conclusionsWhile a history of EtOH exposure or alcoholic reward enhanced dopamine release to a CS, they did not promote sign-tracking under the current conditions. These findings are consistent with the interpretation that EtOH can stimulate conditioned approach, but indicate that the conditioned response may manifest as goal-tracking.
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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.