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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 23, 2026

Studying Food Reward and Motivation in Humans

Studying Food Reward and Motivation in Humans

Published on: March 19, 2014

Dopamine Supports Reward Prediction to Shape Reward-Pursuit Strategy.

Melissa Malvaez¹, Andrea Suarez¹, Nicholas K Griffin¹

¹Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90095.

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience

|January 21, 2026

Summary

Environmental cues shape reward pursuit by influencing dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens core (NAc). This dopamine release, driven by reward prediction, dictates whether to seek or check for rewards, impacting behaviors relevant to addiction and depression.

Keywords:

fiber photometry nucleus accumbens optogenetics pavlovian conditioning pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer ventral tegmental area

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Last Updated: Jan 23, 2026

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A Simple Way to Measure Alterations in Reward-seeking Behavior Using Drosophila melanogaster

A Simple Way to Measure Alterations in Reward-seeking Behavior Using Drosophila melanogaster

Published on: December 15, 2016

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Behavioral Neuroscience
Neurobiology

Background:

Reward predictions, signaled by environmental cues, are crucial for guiding reward-seeking behavior.
These cues trigger dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens core (NAc), a key area for reward processing.
The precise role of cue-evoked dopamine in shaping immediate reward-pursuit strategies requires further elucidation.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether cue-evoked dopamine release in the NAc is modulated by reward prediction.
To determine how this modulation influences the choice between different reward-pursuit strategies (seeking vs. checking).
To explore the implications for understanding motivated behaviors and psychiatric conditions.

Main Methods:

Utilized fiber photometry to measure dopamine release in the NAc of male and female rats.
Employed optogenetic inhibition to manipulate cell-type and pathway-specific neural activity.
Conducted Pavlovian cue-reward conditioning and assessed cue-induced reward-pursuit strategies.

Main Results:

Cue-evoked NAc dopamine release was positively correlated with reward prediction accuracy.
High reward probability led to increased dopamine and a 'checking' strategy, while low probability favored 'seeking'.
Inhibiting cue-evoked NAc dopamine increased seeking behavior and decreased checking behavior.

Conclusions:

Transient, cue-evoked NAc dopamine release dynamically shapes reward-pursuit strategies based on prediction.
Dopamine acts to constrain immediate reward seeking when rewards are strongly and imminently predicted.
Findings offer insights into the neural mechanisms underlying motivated behavior and its dysregulation in disorders like addiction and depression.