TY - JOUR T1 - Dopamine Invigorates Reward Seeking by Promoting Cue-Evoked Excitation in the Nucleus Accumbens JF - The Journal of Neuroscience JO - J. Neurosci. SP - 14349 LP - 14364 DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3492-14.2014 VL - 34 IS - 43 AU - Johann du Hoffmann AU - Saleem M. Nicola Y1 - 2014/10/22 UR - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/34/43/14349.abstract N2 - Approach to reward is a fundamental adaptive behavior, disruption of which is a core symptom of addiction and depression. Nucleus accumbens (NAc) dopamine is required for reward-predictive cues to activate vigorous reward seeking, but the underlying neural mechanism is unknown. Reward-predictive cues elicit both dopamine release in the NAc and excitations and inhibitions in NAc neurons. However, a direct link has not been established between dopamine receptor activation, NAc cue-evoked neuronal activity, and reward-seeking behavior. Here, we use a novel microelectrode array that enables simultaneous recording of neuronal firing and local dopamine receptor antagonist injection. We demonstrate that, in the NAc of rats performing a discriminative stimulus task for sucrose reward, blockade of either D1 or D2 receptors selectively attenuates excitation, but not inhibition, evoked by reward-predictive cues. Furthermore, we establish that this dopamine-dependent signal is necessary for reward-seeking behavior. These results demonstrate a neural mechanism by which NAc dopamine invigorates environmentally cued reward-seeking behavior. ER -