Background
Optimal decision-making requires that organisms correctly evaluate both the costs
and benefits of potential choices. Dopamine transmission within the nucleus accumbens
(NAc) has been heavily implicated in reward-learning and decision-making, but it is
unclear how dopamine release might contribute to decisions that involve costs.
Methods
Cost-based decision-making was examined in rats trained to associate visual cues with
either immediate or delayed rewards (delay manipulation) or low-effort or high-effort
rewards (effort manipulation). After training, dopamine concentration within the NAc
was monitored on a rapid time scale with fast-scan cyclic voltammetry.
Results
Animals exhibited a preference for immediate or low-effort rewards over delayed or
high-effort rewards of equal magnitude. Reward-predictive cues but not response execution
or reward delivery evoked increases in NAc dopamine concentration. When only one response
option was available, cue-evoked dopamine release reflected the value of the future
reward, with larger increases in dopamine signaling higher-value rewards. In contrast,
when both options were presented simultaneously, dopamine signaled the better of two
options, regardless of the future choice.
Conclusions
Phasic dopamine signals in the NAc reflect two different types of reward cost and
encode potential rather than chosen value under choice situations.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 11, 2010
Accepted:
March 24,
2010
Received in revised form:
March 10,
2010
Received:
January 28,
2010
Identification
Copyright
© 2010 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
