Dopamine and the elements of incentive learning
Dopamine and the elements of incentive learning
Dopamine and the elements of incentive learning explains how, in lever pressing for food tasks, incentive learning produces a gradient of attractiveness of environment stimuli: during magazine training, food activates dopaminergic neurons and the click and food cup become conditioned incentive stimuli, acquiring the ability to elicit approach and other responses; during lever-press training, the click activates dopaminergic neurons and the lever and lever-related stimuli become conditioned incentive stimuli. In conditioned place preference, amphetamine enhances dopaminergic neurotransmission and stimuli paired with amphetamine become conditioned incentive stimuli. In conditioned activity experiments, test-box stimuli paired with a dopamine-enhancer, e.g., cocaine, produce greater activity revealing incentive learning. In conditioned avoidance, the offset of an aversive warning stimulus putatively activates dopaminergic neurons leading safety-related stimuli to become conditioned incentive stimuli. If trained animals are treated with a dopamine receptor blocker, the initially intact ability of conditioned incentive stimuli to control responding declines over trials.
Keywords: amphetamine, cocaine, conditioned activity, conditioned avoidance, conditioned place preference, dopamine, incentive learning, lever pressing, magazine training, reward
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