Effect of pimozide on the improvement in learning produced by self-stimulation and by water reinforcement

When rats self-stimulate immediately after the training trial of an appetitive task their performance on a retention test is improved the next day. In the present study, this improvement was blocked by pretraining injections of pimozide, a dopaminergic blocker. In a second experiment, injections of pimozide retarded learning on the same task when the learning was reinforced by drinking water, but had no effect on learning which occurred in the absence of a reinforcer. The data made the hypotheses that the animal's behavior was a result of an action of primozide on sensory or motor mechanisms, or that the drug produced state-dependent effects, highly unlikely. We concluded that neural systems involving dopamine mediate an effect of reinforcing events on behavior.