The DOI matches its Crossref record; 88 of the 88 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Which cue to "want?" Central amygdala opioid activation enhances and focuses incentive salience on a prepotent reward cue
Open accessAbstract
The central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) helps translate learning into motivation, and here, we show that opioid stimulation of CeA magnifies and focuses learned incentive salience onto a specific reward cue (pavlovian conditioned stimulus, or CS). This motivation enhancement makes that cue more attractive, noticeable, and liable to elicit appetitive and consummatory behaviors. To reveal the focusing of incentive salience, we exploited individual differences in an autoshaping paradigm in which a rat prefers to approach, nibble, and sniff one of two reward-associated stimuli (its prepotent stimulus). The individually prepotent cue is either a predictive CS+ that signals reward (8 s metal lever insertion) or instead the metal cup that delivers sucrose pellets (the reward source). Results indicated that CeA opioid activation by microinjection of the mu agonist DAMGO (0.1 microg) selectively and reversibly enhanced the attractiveness of whichever reward CS was that rat's prepotent cue. CeA DAMGO microinjections made rats more vigorously approach their particular prepotent CS and to energetically sniff and nibble it in a nearly frenzied consummatory manner. Only the prepotent cue was enhanced as an incentive target, and alternative cues were not enhanced. Conversely, inactivation of CeA by muscimol microinjection (0.25 microg) suppressed approach, nibbles, and sniffs of the prepotent CS. Confirming modulation of incentive salience, unconditioned food intake was similarly increased by DAMGO microinjection and decreased by muscimol in CeA. We conclude that opioid neurotransmission in CeA helps determine which environmental stimuli become most "wanted," and how "wanted" they become. This may powerfully guide reward-seeking behavior.
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“Activation of opioidergic transmission corresponding to liking tends to increase dopamine activation in response to the incentive being encountered subsequently (Mahler and Berridge, 2009).”
From A motivation model of sex addiction – Relevance to the controversy over the concept (2022) · cites this paper as Mahler and Berridge, 2009
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Metadata
- Authors
- Mahler, S. V., & Berridge, K. C.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Medical University of South Carolina (US)
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 2009-05-20
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 20
- Pages
- 6500-6513
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC2802210
- OpenAlex
- W1964711918
- Cited by
- 223
- References
- 87
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 50 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 6.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (DA015188, DA015188 and MH63649)
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH-63649, R01MH063649)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA021481, DA015188, R01DA015188, F31DA021481)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuropeptides and Animal Physiology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- central amygdala, opioid signaling, mu-opioid receptor, incentive salience, reward cues, autoshaping, approach behavior, consummatory behavior, dietary intake, motivation, DAMGO, muscimol inactivation, reward seeking
- MeSH terms
- Amygdala, Analgesics, Opioid, Analysis of Variance, Animals, Appetitive Behavior, Attention, Behavior, Animal, Conditioning, Classical, Conditioning, Operant, Cues, Eating, Female, Microinjections, Motivation, Muscimol, Gene Expression, Oncogene Proteins v-fos, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, GABA Agonists, Enkephalin, Ala(2)-MePhe(4)-Gly(5)-, Rats
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