Once is too much: conditioned changes in accumbens dopamine following a single saccharin-morphine pairing

Behav Neurosci. 2007 Dec;121(6):1234-42. doi: 10.1037/0735-7044.121.6.1234.

Abstract

The present study tested whether presentation of a taste cue would support conditioned suppression of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) following a single taste-drug pairing. Nondeprived male Sprague-Dawley rats were given 20-min access to a 0.15% saccharin conditioned stimulus (CS). Immediately thereafter, experimental rats were injected with morphine (15 mg/kg ip); standard controls were injected with saline; and explicitly unpaired controls were injected with morphine, but approximately 24 hr later. All rats were then given one 20-min CS-only test. Microdialysis samples from the NAcc were measured over 20-min intervals before, during, and after CS access on the conditioning and test trial. The results showed that a single saccharin-morphine pairing led to a marked reduction in CS intake, and the reduction in intake was accompanied by a conditioned blunting of the accumbens dopamine response to the saccharin reward cue. In turn, a single exposure to the saccharin cue also blunted the unconditioned dopamine response to morphine. Reward comparison effects, then, are cross-modal, bidirectional, and immediate, resulting in both unconditioned and conditioned changes in brain and behavior.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Behavior, Animal / drug effects
  • Conditioning, Psychological / drug effects*
  • Conditioning, Psychological / physiology
  • Dopamine / metabolism*
  • Male
  • Microdialysis / methods
  • Morphine / pharmacology*
  • Narcotics / pharmacology*
  • Nucleus Accumbens / drug effects*
  • Rats
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley
  • Saccharin / administration & dosage*
  • Sweetening Agents / administration & dosage*
  • Time Factors

Substances

  • Narcotics
  • Sweetening Agents
  • Morphine
  • Saccharin
  • Dopamine