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The Journal of Neuroscience, November 1, 1998, 18(21):9130-9138
Changes in Medial Prefrontal Cortical Dopamine Levels Associated
with Response-Contingent Food Reward: An Electrochemical Study in
Rat
Nicole R.
Richardson and
Alain
Gratton
Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, McGill
University, Verdun, Québec, Canada, H4H 1R3
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ABSTRACT |
Voltammetry was used to monitor in rats changes in medial
prefrontal cortex (PFC) dopamine (DA) levels associated with
response-contingent presentation of a condensed milk reward. During two
initial training sessions, minor DA signal fluctuations were seen when
animals consumed a standard 30 sec (0.2 ml) meal earned on a continuous reinforcement schedule. There was no evidence of experience-dependent changes in these fluctuations. Under delayed reinforcement conditions, lever-presses were followed by DA signal increases that were
time-locked to the delay duration, and these were followed by signal
decreases when animals eventually received the reward. Such decreases
became more pronounced when the standard rate of milk delivery was
tripled, but were attenuated when milk delivery was reduced to half the usual rate. Withholding earned milk resulted in signal increases. In
contrast, DA signal increases were observed during milk consumption when the standard meal duration was unexpectedly shortened to 15 sec or
lengthened to 60 or 90 sec. Orderly changes in DA signal were also
observed under partial reinforcement conditions. Unreinforced responses
were associated with DA signal decreases, whereas transient increases
were seen during the 30 sec meal that followed reinforced responses.
These findings indicate that response-contingent reward presentation
elicits synchronous changes in PFC DA transmission. They also suggest
that the DA input to PFC is activated when rewards are presented under
conditions that deviate from those that the animals had come to expect,
particularly so when the temporal structure of learned associations is
altered.
Key words:
voltammetry; mesocortical dopamine; expectancy; working
memory; instrumental conditioning; incentive motivation; reward
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INTRODUCTION |
The ventral tegmental area (VTA)
dopamine (DA) projection to nucleus accumbens (NAcc) has been
implicated in the control of behaviors motivated by rewards (Di Chiara
and Imperato, 1988 ; Koob, 1992 ; Wise, 1996 ). The VTA also contains DA
neurons that project to medial prefrontal cortex (PFC), a structure
linked functionally to temporal organization of goal-directed behaviors (Tolman, 1932 ; Luria, 1980 ; Shallice, 1988 ; Fuster, 1989 ). Involvement of PFC appears to be crucial when the choice of an appropriate response
depends on information from the recent past. Evidence from other
sources suggests that PFC DA is involved in mediating responses that
engage so-called working memory processes (Goldman-Rakic, 1987 ;
Petrides et al., 1993 ; McCarthy et al., 1994 ). Dopamine-depleting lesions to PFC disrupt performance on delayed response tasks (Brozoski et al., 1979 ; Simon et al., 1980 ; Simon, 1981 ) as does local D1 receptor blockade (Sawaguchi et al., 1990b ; de Brabander et al., 1991 ;
Sawaguchi and Goldman-Rakic, 1991 ). Locally applied DA and D1 receptor
antagonists also facilitate and attenuate, respectively, increases in
PFC cell activity associated with delayed responses (Sawaguchi et al.,
1990a ,b ).
The PFC has been implicated in appetitive motivation and here also DA
appears to be involved. Depending on the site, lesions to PFC have been
shown to alter feeding behaviors (Wolf-Jurewicz, 1982 ), causing
increased finickiness (Kolb and Nonneman, 1975 ), aphagia (Kolb et al.,
1977 ), and a reduction in food hoarding (de Brabander et al., 1991 ).
Furthermore, electrical stimulation of sulcal PFC induces feeding
(Bielajew and Trzcinska, 1994 ). Rostral sulcal PFC contains cells that
are activated during reward-relevant behaviors, whereas neurons
responsive to food-conditioned stimuli appear to be localized caudally
in the dorsolateral PFC (Ono et al., 1984 ; Inoue et al., 1985 ).
Moreover, feeding and food-related stimuli, as well as operant
responses for food, all increase extracellular DA levels in PFC
(D'Angio and Scatton, 1989 ; Hernandez and Hoebel, 1990 ; Cenci et al.,
1992 ; Feenstra and Botterblom, 1996 ; Bassareo and Di Chiara, 1997 ).
We have reported previously that response-contingent food presentation
is tightly correlated temporally with changes in NAcc DA transmission
(Richardson and Gratton, 1996 ). From this study, we concluded that NAcc
DA transmission is not activated so much as a result of food
consumption as it is by stimuli conditioned to the food reward. A
working hypothesis suggested by our findings is that some
reward-relevant changes in NAcc DA transmission may result from the
concurrent activation of an inhibitory input to these DA neurons. The
mechanism that would be responsible for exerting this action is open to
speculation. However, PFC is one interesting possibility because of
evidence that DA cells innervating this area can indirectly modulate DA
transmission in NAcc (Haroutunian et al., 1988 ; Louilot et al., 1989 ;
Deutch et al., 1990 ; Vezina et al., 1991 ; Mitchell and Gratton, 1992 ;
Grace, 1993 ; Doherty and Gratton, 1996 ). As a first step in exploring
this possibility, we investigated how PFC DA levels change in relation
to earned food presentations. To that end, we used voltammetry to
monitor fluctuations in PFC DA levels under conditions identical to
those shown previously to alter reward-relevant changes in NAcc DA
transmission.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS |
Animals. Male Long-Evans rats (Charles River, St.
Constant, Québec) weighing 400-475 gm at the time of surgery
were used. Animals were housed singly on a 12 hr reversed light/dark
cycle (lights on from 8 P.M. to 8 A.M.), with water freely available. Food was restricted to 18 gm/d presented in the home cage immediately after each test session. The animals' weight remained stable during the course of the study; average weight loss was <10%. All the animals had been trained to lever-press on a fixed ratio 1 (FR 1)
schedule for a 0.05 ml meal of condensed milk (Eagle brand; diluted 1:4
with water) presented by a liquid dispenser (Lafayette). Animals were
trained during two to three daily 50 min sessions in an environment
different from that used to perform electrochemical recordings.
Surgery. Animals were pretreated with atropine sulfate (0.1 mg/kg, s.c.) and then implanted under sodium pentobarbital anesthesia (60 mg/kg, i.p.) with a voltammetric electrode aimed at the medial PFC.
The flat skull coordinates for the electrode were 3.2 mm anterior to
bregma, 0.6 mm lateral to the midline, and 4.2 mm ventral to the
surface of the cortex. An Ag/AgCl reference electrode and a stainless
steel ground electrode were implanted in contralateral and ipsilateral
parietal cortex, respectively. Pin connectors soldered to the
electrochemical, reference, and ground electrodes were inserted into a
miniature plastic strip connector secured with acrylic dental cement to
five stainless steel screws threaded into the cranium. All procedures
were performed in accordance with the Canadian Council on Animal Care
Guidelines and the Society for Neuroscience Policy on the Use of
Animals in Research.
Electrochemical probes. The electrochemical probe consisted
of three 30-µm-diameter carbon fibers (Avco Specialty Materials, Lowell, MA) that extended 50-100 µm beyond the tip of a pulled glass
capillary. The carbon fiber bundle was fixed in the capillary with a
drop of Epoxylite, and the exposed tip was repeatedly coated with
Nafion (Aldrich, Milwaukee, WI), a perfluoro-ionomer that promotes the
exchange of cations, such as DA, and impedes that of anions, notably
ascorbic acid (AA) and the DA metabolite dihydroxyphenylacetic acid
(DOPAC) (Gerhardt et al., 1984 ; Capella et al., 1990 ). Electrodes were
calibrated immediately before implantation to determine their sensitivity to DA and their selectivity for DA against AA. Calibrations were performed in 0.1 M PBS, pH 7.4, containing 250 µM AA. Only electrodes exhibiting a DA-to-AA selectivity
ratio of at least 1000:1 (mean = 2612:1) and a linear response
(r > 0.997) to increasing concentrations of DA were
used.
Electrochemical measurements. Electrochemical recordings
were performed using a computer-controlled, high-speed
chronoamperometric apparatus (Medical Systems, Greenvale, NY). An
oxidative potential of +0.55 V (with respect to the reference
electrode) was applied to the electrode for 100 msec at a rate of 5 Hz.
The amplitude of the resulting oxidation current was digitized and
integrated over the last 80 msec of each pulse. Every 10 digitized
current measures were automatically averaged and converted into
equivalent values of nanomolar DA concentration using the
in vitro calibration factor before being graphically
displayed on a video monitor at 2 sec intervals. The reduction current
generated when the potential was returned to resting level (0.0 V for
100 msec) was digitized and averaged in the same manner and served as
an index to identify the main electroactive species contributing to
changes in oxidation current. With Nafion-coated electrodes and a
sampling rate of 5 Hz, the magnitude of the reduction current flow
elicited by an increase in DA concentration is typically 60-80% of
the corresponding increase in oxidation current [reduction/oxidation
ratio (red/ox) = 0.6-0.8]. Previous work has also shown that
the oxidation of AA is virtually irreversible (red/ox = 0),
whereas that of DOPAC is almost entirely reversible (red/ox = 0.9-1.0). The reduction/oxidation ratios for norepinephrine (NE) and
serotonin (5-HT) are 0.4-0.5 and 0.1-0.3, respectively (Gratton et
al., 1989 ). The mean reduction/oxidation ratio for the electrodes used
in the present study was 0.69 (range = 0.59-0.76). Extensive
discussions concerning the interpretation of in vivo
voltammetry data have been published previously (Mitchell and Gratton,
1991 ; Doherty and Gratton, 1992 ; Mitchell and Gratton, 1992 ; Kiyatkin
et al., 1993 ; Gratton and Wise, 1994 ; Kiyatkin and Gratton, 1994 ;
Banks and Gratton, 1995 ; Noel and Gratton, 1995 ; Doherty and Gratton,
1996 ; Doherty and Gratton, 1997 ).
Apparatus and procedure. The recording chamber consisted of
a wooden box with a glass facade. A lever connected to a microswitch protruded from one of the walls, 5 cm above the floor of the chamber. During testing, depression of the lever would trigger delivery of the
condensed milk solution via a spout made of 18 gauge stainless steel
tubing. The spout protruded 1 cm from the chamber wall, 5 cm above the
floor and 6 cm from the lever, and was connected by a length of
polyethylene tubing to a syringe pump (Razel) equipped with a digital
flow rate control. The syringe pump was connected to a gated digital
timer that allowed temporal parameters to be varied (e.g., duration of
delivery). A 60 W light inside the recording chamber was illuminated
when the syringe pump was activated.
Electrochemical recordings started 3 d after surgery. Animals were
allowed to acclimatize to the testing environment during the
intervening days. Immediately before a recording session, the in
vitro calibration factor for the animal's electrode the slope of
the function relating increases in oxidation current to increases in DA
concentration was entered in the data acquisition software. This
allowed on-line conversion of an increase in oxidation current to a
value equivalent to the nanomolar change in DA concentration that was required to produce an equal signal increase in
vitro. Each animal was placed in the recording chamber and
connected to the chronoamperometric instrument by a shielded cable and
a low-impedance commutator. To minimize electrical interference, the
signal was routed through a low-current bias preamplifier configured as
a current-to-voltage converter (gain = 1 × 108) connected directly into the animal's head
assembly. The electrochemical signal was allowed to stabilize for
30-60 min, during which access to the lever was blocked by a glass
jar.
Once the signal had stabilized, the syringe-pump was loaded with a
fresh supply of condensed milk. The start of the session was then
signaled by illuminating the chamber light for 30 sec, after which the
spout was inserted into the chamber, and the glass jar covering the
lever was removed. Under the standard condition, each lever-press
resulted in the delivery of 0.2 ml of condensed milk over 30 sec (flow
rate = 7 µl/sec). Lever-presses during the period of milk
delivery had no programmed consequences. Each lever-press also caused
the chamber light to be illuminated concurrently with the period of
milk delivery. At the end of the session, the glass jar was replaced
over the lever, but recording continued until the electrochemical
signal had again stabilized.
Animals were tested on consecutive, daily 60-90 min sessions during
which the magnitude and direction of fluctuations in electrochemical signal produced by the following experimental conditions were examined.
Delay of reinforcement. The 30 sec milk delivery period that
followed each lever-press was delayed by 20 or 30 sec. Lever-presses during the delay had no programmed consequences. Animals were tested
for an entire session, first under the 20 sec and then under the 30 sec
delay condition.
Magnitude of reinforcement. The total volume of milk
delivered during each 30 sec period either equaled that of the standard reward (0.2 ml at 7 µl/sec) or was halved (0.1 ml), doubled (0.4 ml),
or tripled (0.6 ml) by varying the flow rate (3.5, 14, or 21 µl/sec,
respectively). Animals were tested also under a no-reward (0 ml)
condition whereby lever-presses had no programmed consequences. Milk
delivery was reinstated after 90-120 sec to avoid response extinction.
Animals were allowed to lever-press 10-20 times under each randomly
presented condition.
Duration of reinforcement. Keeping the flow rate constant at
7 µl/sec, the total amount of milk received was varied by changing the duration of delivery. The total volume of milk delivered either equaled that of the standard reward (0.2 ml in 30 sec) or was halved
(0.1 ml in 15 sec), doubled (0.4 ml in 60 sec), or tripled (0.6 ml in
90 sec). The duration of the light cue was equal to that of milk
delivery. The animals were allowed 10-20 responses on the lever under
each condition before changing to a new, randomly chosen duration.
Reinforcement schedule. The response requirement for the
standard reward was increased from a continuous reinforcement schedule (FR 1) to one of three schedules: FR 3, FR 5, or FR 10. The different schedules were tested in random order throughout an entire testing session.
To investigate intra- and intersession changes in electrochemical
signal, animals were allowed to lever-press under the standard condition throughout each of the first two test sessions (Days 1 and
2). The four experimental conditions were tested on subsequent days.
Because the changes in electrochemical signal were generally of low
amplitude, the number of conditions that could be tested in any given
animal depended entirely on obtaining noise-free recordings. Hence,
three of the seven animals were tested under all four sets of
experimental conditions. Of the remaining four animals, three were
tested under at least three sets of conditions and one was tested under
only two sets.
At the completion of the experiment, the animals were deeply
anesthetized with sodium pentobarbital (70 mg/kg, i.p.) and
transcardially perfused with PBS followed by 10% formalin. Electrode
placements were confirmed from 20 µm coronal sections stained with
formol-thionine.
Data format. Because of the inherent differences in
sensitivity between Nafion-coated electrodes, in vivo
changes in oxidation current recorded with different electrodes (in
different animals) cannot be assumed to be equivalent. Thus, valid
comparisons are possible only if the sensitivity of each electrode is
calibrated against a standard and the electrochemical data are
expressed as standard equivalent values. In the present study, DA was
used as the standard to calibrate electrode sensitivity. Accordingly, in vivo changes in oxidation current are expressed as
nanomolar equivalent values of DA concentration. In addition, as
explained previously (Richardson and Gratton, 1996 ), the fact that the
rate of responding varied between animals and as a function of the test
condition required that averaged data be presented as changes in
electrochemical signal (nanomolar DA equivalent) relative to the moment
of the lever-press (time 0). Because the record at time 0 was the point
of comparison for changes in electrochemical signal that preceded and
followed the lever-press, it was given a value of 0. A value of 0 nM, therefore, is not meant to correspond to the absolute
concentration of extracellular DA, because unlike microdialysis,
voltammetry does not provide measures of absolute DA concentration.
Rather, the data reflect relative changes in the DA signal
elicited by a defined event or stimulus; hence, negative and positive
values indicate DA signal levels that were lower and higher,
respectively, than those at the moment of the lever-press.
Data analysis. Only data from animals with histologically
confirmed electrode placements in PFC were analyzed. Electrochemical records with movement-related artifacts were excluded from the data
analysis. Data were also excluded when animals either ignored or did
not consume all of the earned milk reward as it emerged from the spout.
Records during which animals consumed any milk that had accumulated in
the small spillage cup under the spout were also disregarded.
A one-way ANOVA was used to test the significance of signal changes
observed under different conditions. The point of comparison was the
signal level recorded during the final 2 sec of the milk delivery
period. Under some conditions (i.e., duration of milk delivery), signal
levels recorded 15 sec into the period of milk delivery were compared
as well. When indicated, post hoc analyses were performed
using Newman-Keuls test for multiple comparisons.
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RESULTS |
Test days 1 and 2
Responses to the standard reward
Animals were allowed to lever-press under standard conditions
throughout the first 2 d of testing. Stable response rates were achieved by the end of the first test day; average response rates were
113.0 and 136.7 responses/hr for days 1 and 2, respectively. In
general, small changes in electrochemical signal that were synchronous
(i.e., time-locked) with the time of each lever-press and the 30 sec
meal that followed were observed throughout the 2 d of testing
(Fig. 1). Figure 1B,C
are averaged changes in signal associated with the first (start) and
last (end) four to five earned meals of each of days 1 and 2, respectively. As can be seen, there were no obvious within- or
between-session differences in the magnitude or direction of the
electrochemical responses associated with each lever-press. Therefore,
the averaged signal changes of these first 2 test d (Fig.
1A) served as the baseline response against which
electrochemical responses recorded under the different test conditions
were compared.

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Figure 1.
A, Averaged baseline records
(n = 340) obtained from seven animals during test
days 1 and 2. Each lever-press (vertical line) was
followed immediately by a standard reward of 0.2 ml of condensed milk
delivered at a constant rate (7 µl/sec) over 30 sec
(horizontal bar). Shown is the average of the first
(Start) and last (End) four to five
records of test days 1 (B) and 2 (C). There were no within- or between-session
differences in the signal levels recorded during the final 2 sec of
milk delivery: F(3,81) = 0.23, p = 0.87.
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Responses to conditioned stimuli
The start of each daily session was signaled by presenting a 30 sec light cue. As shown in Figure 2,
light presentation had little effect on the first test day, when
animals were naive to the experimental conditions. On any of the
subsequent test days, light presentation would elicit small increases
in signal in some but never in all of the animals. When they were
observed, these apparently conditioned responses varied widely in
magnitude both between and within animals. Increases in signal were
rarely observed during the few minutes that preceded presentation of
the light cue, although the sounds associated with this period (e.g.,
loading a fresh supply of condensed milk into the syringe-pump) often caused animals to lick the wall area where the spout would be located
and to paw at the jar covering the lever.

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Figure 2.
No evidence of conditioned increases in
electrochemical signal was observed. At the start of each session
(open arrow), access to the lever (filled
arrow) was signaled by presenting alone a 30 sec light cue
(dashed horizontal bar) that would be paired with
delivery of each earned milk reward. Signal levels recorded during the
final 2 sec of light cue presentation did not differ between test days
(F(1,52) = 0.43, p = 0.51) nor were they different from those recorded immediately before
( 2 sec) the start of each session whether animals were experienced
(Days 2->, F(1,92) = 0.991, p = 0.322) or not (Day 1,
F(1,12) = 0.615, p = 0.448).
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Delay of reinforcement
Figure 3 depicts averaged
electrochemical records obtained when earned milk presentations were
delayed by 20 and 30 sec. When compared with baseline responses (no
delay), signal decreases preceded lever-presses under both delayed
reinforcement conditions, and these were followed by signal increases
that peaked when the animals eventually received and started to consume
the milk. Signals then decreased steadily during the 30 sec meal until
milk delivery ended.

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Figure 3.
Averaged records obtained when the 30 sec milk
delivery (open horizontal bar) was delayed by 20 sec
(A) or 30 sec (B). In each
case, the averaged baseline response to the standard reward
(filled horizontal bar) is shown for comparison.
Signal levels recorded 30 sec after each lever-press differed
significantly across delay conditions
(F(2,711) = 24.55, p = 0.0001). At this time point, DA signal levels recorded under the
two delayed reinforcement conditions did not differ significantly
but in both cases were significantly higher than those of baseline
responses (p < 0.05).
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Magnitude of reinforcement
Figure 4 presents averaged records
obtained when the standard rate of milk delivery was halved (0.1 ml/30
sec), doubled (0.4 ml/30 sec), or tripled (0.6 ml/30 sec). Also shown
are averaged responses recorded when animals received milk at the
standard rate of delivery (0.2 ml/30 sec) and when earned milk was
withheld (0 ml). As can be seen in Figure 4A, operant
responses for the standard reward under these conditions were
associated with signal changes comparable to the baseline responses
recorded on test days 1 and 2. The data in Figure 4B
show signal levels that remain relatively unchanged as animals consumed
milk delivered at half the standard rate. These were found, however, to
be significantly elevated when compared with those of baseline
responses. In contrast, reliable increases in signal were seen when
earned milk was withheld, whereas tripling the rate of milk delivery
caused significantly more pronounced signal decreases (Fig.
4C). Decreases in signal that did not differ from those of
baseline responses were seen when animals consumed milk delivered at
twice the usual rate (Fig. 4C).

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Figure 4.
Averaged records obtained when the rate of milk
delivery was equal to that of the standard reward (0.2 ml/30 sec)
(A), decreased to 0.1 ml/30 sec or withheld (0.0 ml) (B), or increased to 0.4 ml or 0.6 ml/30 sec
(C). In each case, the averaged baseline response
to the standard reward is shown for comparison. Changing the flow rate
had a significant effect on signal levels recorded during the final 2 sec of milk delivery (F(4,689) = 16.85, p = 0.0001). When compared with baseline responses,
signal levels recorded under the 0.2 ml condition did not differ.
However, signals levels recorded under the no-reward (0.0 ml) and 0.1 ml conditions were significantly higher (p < 0.05), whereas those seen under the 0.6 ml condition were
significantly lower (p < 0.05) than those
of baseline responses.
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Duration of reinforcement
Figure 5 shows averaged records
obtained when the duration of milk delivery was halved (0.1 ml/15 sec),
doubled (0.4 ml/60 sec), or tripled (0.6 ml/90 sec) as well as averaged
responses recorded when animals received the standard meal (0.2 ml/30
sec). In general, signals were found to decrease before each
lever-press, and the meal that followed was associated with signal
increases, a pattern opposite to that of baseline responses. It
is noteworthy that milk consumption under these conditions resulted in
significant signal increases, even when animals received the same 30 sec meal that resulted in small signal decreases on test days 1 and 2 (Fig. 5A). Furthermore, although signals increased at
comparable rates regardless of meal duration, the signal levels
observed at the end of milk delivery differed as a function of meal
duration. Specifically, at the end of a 15 or 30 sec meal, signals
would return, usually abruptly, to levels close to or slightly above those at the time of the lever-press. During longer meals (60 and 90 sec), however, signals would typically start decreasing 30-40 sec into
the milk delivery period and would continue to decline steadily until
it ended.

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Figure 5.
Averaged records obtained when the duration of
milk delivery was equal to that of the standard reward (30 sec)
(A), decreased to 15 sec
(B), or increased to 60 sec
(C) or 90 sec (D). In each
case, the averaged baseline response to the standard reward is shown
for comparison. Length of horizontal bars corresponds to
duration of milk delivery under the baseline (filled
bar) and test (open bar) conditions. Signal
levels recorded at 15 sec of the milk delivery period differed
significantly across conditions (F(4,523) = 4.48, p = 0.0008). Signal levels recorded under the
15 sec (0.1 ml), 30 sec (0.2 ml), 60 sec (0.4 ml), and 90 sec (0.6 ml)
conditions did not differ significantly from each other, but all were
significantly higher than those of baseline responses
(p < 0.05).
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Reinforcement schedule
The changes in electrochemical signal recorded when animals were
reinforced either continuously (FR 1; baseline) or only after every 3rd
(FR 3), 5th (FR 5), or 10th (FR 10) lever-press are presented in Figure
6. Under partial reinforcement
conditions, reinforced lever-presses were preceded by marked decreases
in signal, and in contrast to the signal decreases seen under the continuous reinforcement condition, the period of milk consumption that
followed was associated with increases in signal, the amplitude and
duration of which depended on the response/reinforcement ratio. Thus,
after small initial increases, signals would start decreasing 5-10 sec
into a meal earned on an FR 3 schedule. Larger initial signal increases
were seen when animals consumed milk earned on an FR 5 or FR 10 schedule, and these were followed by similar decreases that coincided
with the end of the milk delivery period.

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Figure 6.
Mean changes in electrochemical signal recorded
when the response requirement for the standard milk reward (0.2 ml/30
sec) was increased from an FR 1 schedule to an FR 3, FR 5, or FR 10 schedule. Signal levels recorded at 30 sec of the milk delivery period
differed significantly across conditions
(F(3,810) = 7.97, p = 0.0001). Signal levels recorded under the FR 3, FR 5, or FR 10 conditions did not differ significantly, but all were significantly
elevated when compared with those of baseline responses (FR 1;
p < 0.05).
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Histology
A reconstruction of electrode placements based on the atlas of
Paxinos and Watson (1986) is shown in Figure
7. In at least three animals, tissue
damage produced by the electrode extended into the region corresponding
to the infralimbic PFC, whereas in the remaining four animals, the
deepest tissue damage was assessed to be in or at the ventral limit of
the prelimbic area. However, when allowances are made for estimation
error, the electrode in at least one of these animals would have
extended into the infralimbic PFC. There was no obvious relationship
between the electrochemical responses recorded and the depth of
electrode placements.

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Figure 7.
Histological reconstruction of electrode
placements in PFC. The filled circles indicate the
deepest tissue damage found during histological analysis. The length of
the vertical bar extending from each symbol corresponds
to the average error (~150 µm) in estimating the point of deepest
electrode penetration.
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DISCUSSION |
In general, the present results indicate that response-contingent
presentation of a food reward is associated with time-locked changes in
PFC DA transmission. These findings are congruent with electrophysiological evidence of similar changes in PFC and VTA DA unit
activity during goal-directed behaviors (Ono et al., 1984 ; Inoue et
al., 1985 ; Schultz, 1986 ; Nishino et al., 1987 ; Romo and Schultz, 1990 ;
Schultz and Romo, 1990a ,b ; Ljungberg et al., 1992 ; Schultz et al.,
1993 ; Kosobud et al., 1994 ; Watanabe, 1996 ). The amplitude and
direction of DA signal fluctuations were found to depend on variations
in the relative value of the reward, the duration and timing of reward
presentation, and the operant response demands, and this too is
generally consistent with previously reported evidence of reward-,
delay-, and task-dependent changes in PFC cell activity. Moreover, the
present data suggest that the level of meso-PFC DA activation is
determined not only by the reward that animals receive, but apparently
also by the reward that they expect to receive. That activation of PFC
and in particular of the DA input to that region is involved in coding
expectancies based on information from the recent past has been
suggested previously (Guigon et al., 1995 ; Watanabe, 1996 ;
Schultz et al., 1997 ).
Test days 1 and 2
Relatively minor changes in PFC DA signals were recorded when
responses led to the expected outcome: the standard 30 sec meal of 0.2 ml of milk. Furthermore, these changes were invariant in that a very
similar pattern of DA signal fluctuations could be observed throughout
each of the first 2 test d. This is in contrast to the
experience-dependent changes in DA transmission observed in NAcc under
identical conditions (Richardson and Gratton, 1996 ). There, milk
consumption was accompanied by DA signal increases when animals were
inexperienced, but not in trained animals where decreases in DA signal
were seen instead. In experienced animals, increases in NAcc DA
occurred in apparent anticipation of earning milk. These and other
findings suggested that NAcc DA transmission is activated by
conditioned incentives and that the main consequence of milk
consumption is a suppression of this anticipatory activation. Although
the animals in the present study were tested under the same conditions,
we found little evidence that milk consumption was sufficient to
stimulate DA transmission in PFC, nor was there evidence that PFC DA
transmission increased in response to conditioned stimuli. When
presented alone at the start of each session, a light explicitly paired
with milk delivery had no significant effect on DA signals. Neither did
we observe an effect of implicit cues that predicted the impending
availability of milk, despite the fact that such cues elicited intense
preparatory behaviors. This stands in marked contrast with NAcc, where
we found evidence of food- and drug-conditioned increases in DA
transmission (Gratton and Wise, 1994 ; Richardson and Gratton, 1996 ) and
where elevated DA levels are seen when animals engage in preparatory
behaviors directed toward food or other appetitive stimuli (Church et
al., 1987 ; Blackburn et al., 1989 ; McCullough and Salamone, 1992 ;
Mitchell and Gratton, 1992 ; Phillips et al., 1993 ; Salamone et al.,
1994 ). Taken together, these findings suggest that PFC DA transmission, in the sites sampled here at least, is not as strongly influenced as
the meso-NAcc DA pathway by the incentive value of rewards.
This conclusion is opposite to that suggested in a recent
microdialysis study in which stimuli associated with food presentation were reported to elevate dialysate levels of PFC but not NAcc DA
(Bassareo and Di Chiara, 1997 ). There is no obvious explanation for
these discrepant findings and sufficient procedural differences between
the two studies to preclude direct comparisons. The most obvious
difference is in the approaches used to monitor changes in
extracellular PFC DA. With the microdialysis probe used in the study of
Bassareo and Di Chiara (1997) , DA levels were sampled over a relatively
greater area of PFC (1.5 mm dorsal-ventral extent) than with the
voltammetric probe used here (50-100 µm). Thus, it is entirely
possible that the conditioned increases in DA dialysate levels reported
by Bassareo and Di Chiara (1997) reflect activation of mesocortical DA
neurons that innervate PFC sites other than those sampled in the
present study. Such a possibility would be consistent with
electrophysiological evidence of regional differences in PFC responses
to food-conditioned stimuli (Ono et al., 1984 ; Inoue et al., 1985 ).
Another potentially important difference is that animals were tested in
a classical conditioning paradigm in the study of Bassareo and Di
Chiara (1997) , whereas instrumental conditioning was used in the
present study. Although it remains speculative, it may be that the
influence of conditioned stimuli on PFC DA transmission is not as great
when reward presentation is contingent upon the animal's response and
perhaps even less so when the response leads to the expected
outcome.
Influence of expectancy
The most salient changes in PFC DA signals were seen when milk was
presented under conditions that deviated from those the animals had
learned to expect. Animals had been trained, and apparently had learned
to expect immediately after each response a 30 sec meal delivered at 7 µl/sec. Deferring delivery of earned milk by 20 or 30 sec caused DA
signals to increase during the intervening delay, and this was followed
by a comparable decrease in signal when animals eventually received the
reward. The functional significance of this effect is difficult to
assess. However, delay-related changes in spontaneous PFC unit activity
is widely considered to be a defining characteristic of various
behavioral tasks thought to engage working memory processes. Indeed,
the sustained activity of some PFC neurons during the intervening delay
between cue presentation and the operant response is thought to be a
correlate of cue retention. Insofar as the operant conditioning
paradigm used here can be compared with the delayed response tasks
typically used in PFC unit recording studies, the present data would
suggest that meso-PFC DA neurons are activated when the temporal
structure of a learned association is altered. The fact that
DA-depleting lesions to PFC cause deficits in the performance of a
delayed alternation task would be consistent with this idea (Brozoski
et al., 1979 ; Simon et al., 1980 ; Simon, 1981 ).
Other findings reported here are congruent with the idea that DA
transmission in PFC increases when prevailing conditions no longer
match those the animals had come to expect. When meal duration was
varied, an increase instead of a decrease in DA signals was the
predominant change observed during milk consumption. The fact that such
increases were seen even when animals received the standard reward
clearly indicates that the amount of milk consumed, in itself, was not
the critical factor here. Rather, it appears that the increase in PFC
DA transmission was related to the animals' inability to determine how
much milk they could expect to receive. This could be as little as 0.1 ml (15 sec) or as much as 0.6 ml (90 sec). Interestingly, although the
animals could not predict the duration of each meal, they may have
learned when the probability of continued milk delivery would be nil
(90 sec). This is suggested by the observation that DA signals did not
remain elevated as long as the animals consumed milk (Fig. 5D). Rather, it appears that DA signals declined as a
function of the animals' increasing ability to predict the end of a
meal. In support of this interpretation is the finding that comparable increases in DA signal were not seen when the animals consumed milk
delivered at flow rates higher or lower than expected. The critical
difference here is that the rate at which milk emerged from the spout
would have been a reliable indicator of the amount of milk animals
could expect to receive. In effect, the animals would have learned to
assess the total volume of milk they could expect from the amount of
milk received during the initial few seconds of the meal.
Reinforcement schedule
The most difficult DA signal changes to interpret were produced
when the response requirement was increased. Instead of the small
decreases seen with continuous reinforcement, increases in DA signals
were observed when animals consumed milk earned on more demanding
reinforcement schedules. The fact that the reward was identical for all
schedules makes it clear that the signal increases did not depend on
milk consumption per se but rather on the conditions under which the
milk being consumed had been earned. Beyond this, we can only speculate
about the nature of these conditions. It is noteworthy, however, that
milk consumption was also associated with DA signal increases when meal
duration was varied, an effect interpreted as being related to the
animals' inability to predict the amount of milk they could expect.
However, it is not clear that reward predictability can account for the signal increases seen under partial reinforcement conditions. Although
meals were no longer presented when they were expected (after each
response), milk delivery was not an entirely unpredictable event; that
is, animals presumably should have learned when to expect the next meal
from the number of responses required to earn it. Interpreting the
pattern of DA signal fluctuations seen under partial reinforcement
conditions must also take into account the fact that, under delayed
reinforcement conditions, milk consumption was associated with
decreases and not increases in DA signal. One possible explanation for
this difference may be that, under delayed reinforcement conditions,
earned milk was delivered regardless of what animals did during the
intervening delay, whereas under partial reinforcement conditions, milk
delivery remained strictly contingent on the animals' behavior. This
would imply that reward-related changes in PFC DA depend, at least in
part, on the relative amount of work required to earn the reward.
Conclusions
The present study provides evidence indicating that time-locked
changes in PFC DA transmission accompany response-contingent presentation of a food reward. For the most part, the data suggest that
the DA input to PFC is activated whenever prevailing conditions deviate
from those that the animals had come to expect. Such a conclusion would
be congruent with the idea that PFC DA plays a role in cognitive
processes responsible for the temporal organization of goal-directed
behaviors. Finally, given mounting evidence that subcortical DA
transmission is indirectly modulated by cortical DA, the present
findings suggest that some of the reward- and behavior-relevant changes
in NAcc DA transmission described previously (Richardson and Gratton,
1996 ) may occur as a result of concurrent fluctuations in PFC DA
levels.
 |
FOOTNOTES |
Received June 29, 1998; revised Aug. 13, 1998; accepted Aug. 20, 1998.
This study was made possible by a Medical Research Council (MRC) grant
and by a Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ)
career scientist award to A.G. and an MRC studentship to N.R.R.
Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Alain Gratton, Douglas
Hospital Research Center, 6875 LaSalle Boulevard, Verdun, Québec,
Canada H4H 1R3.
 |
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