Operant Costs Modulate Dopamine Release to Self-Administered Cocaine

The costs associated with obtaining illicit drugs can fluctuate depending upon the relative drug availability. As a consequence of the changing costs, the effort that one must exert to obtain drugs is dynamic. Considerable evidence illustrates a critical role for dopamine in the ventral medial striatum in mediating drug reinforcement. However, little is known regarding how dopamine release is affected by changes in the costs associated with earning drugs. We used fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to determine how changes in the operant requirement affected dopamine release to self-administered cocaine in male rats. Dopamine release to cocaine infusions increased across trials during self-administration sessions using a fixed-ratio reinforcement schedule with a low operant requirement. However, increasing the operant requirement abolished the within-session elevation in dopamine release to drug rewards. This effect was not due to underlying changes in preinfusion dopamine levels and was not explained by cocaine levels in the brain. This within-session increase in dopamine release to cocaine infusions reemerged when the operant requirement was lowered. Under a progressive ratio reinforcement schedule, there was no increase in dopamine release to drug rewards across trials, which contrasts with prior studies demonstrating an increase in dopamine release to food rewards. Collectively, these findings illustrate that the influence of operant costs on reward-evoked dopamine release depends upon type of reward that can be earned (e.g., food or drug).SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The mesolimbic dopamine system is involved with mediating drug reinforcement. Although the costs associated with earning drugs are dynamic, no studies to date have examined how dopamine release to drug rewards is affected by changing costs. By performing fast-scan cyclic voltammetry recordings in rats self-administering cocaine, the present work demonstrates that changing the operant costs reversibly modulates the dopamine response to cocaine rewards. Furthermore, these findings highlight that the influence of costs on dopamine release to drug rewards differs from the established effect of costs on dopamine release to food rewards.