The power of price compels you: Behavioral economic insights into dopamine-based valuation of rewarding and aversively motivated behavior.

The mesocorticolimbic dopamine pathway is generally considered to be a reward pathway. While shortsighted, there is a strong basis for this view of dopamine function. Here, we first describe the role of phasic dopamine release events in reward seeking. We then explain why these release events are being reconsidered as value signals and how we applied behavioral economics to confirm they play a causal role in the valuation of reward. Just because dopamine release can function as a dopamine reward value signal however, does not imply that dopamine is solely a reward molecule. Rather, mesocorticolimbic dopamine appears to mediate many adaptive behaviors, including: reward seeking, avoidance, escape and fear-associated conditioned freezing. While more studies are needed before a consensus is reached on when, where and how dopamine mediates aversively-motivated behavior, its involvement is almost irrefutable. Thus, we next describe the role dopamine plays in these ethologically-relevant defensive behaviors. We conclude by describing our recent behavioral economics results that reveal a causal role for dopamine in the valuation of avoidance.