PBIO SEMINAR SERIES

Rapid dopamine fluctuations in the control of motivation?

Wednesday - January 11, 2006
05-06 SEMINAR SERIES

Paul E. M. Phillips
Assistant Professor UW Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Speaker's website

Host: Stan Froehner

Dopamine is a neuromodulator that known to be involved in some aspect of motivated behaviors, but its role in moment-to-moment behavior is poorly understood. Using real-time chemistry in the brains of behaving rats, we have monitored dopamine on a subsecond timescale as they perform operant tasks to acquire rewards. We have been able to discern changes in dopamine that occur during seeking behaviors in the seconds before a response is made, during expectation of a reward following completion of a response and on receipt of the reward (including pharmacological 'rewards' such as abused substances). Moreover, with electrical stimulation of dopamine cells during behavior, we have shown that the rapid changes in dopamine that occur just before operant responding are in fact promoting reward seeking. We have now turned our attention to understanding precisely what part of the cost-benefit analysis in the decision to seek rewards is controlled by rapid dopamine neurotransmission. To do this we have established a rodent decision-making task in which we can alter costs and benefits in a systematic manner. Preliminary data from this model will be presented.