RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Photoperiod Impacts Nucleus Accumbens Dopamine Dynamics
JF eneuro
JO eNeuro
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP ENEURO.0361-22.2023
DO 10.1523/ENEURO.0361-22.2023
VO 10
IS 2
A1 Alexis N. Jameson
A1 Justin K. Siemann
A1 James Melchior
A1 Erin S. Calipari
A1 Douglas G. McMahon
A1 Brad A. Grueter
YR 2023
UL http://www.eneuro.org/content/10/2/ENEURO.0361-22.2023.abstract
AB Circadian photoperiod, or day length, changes with the seasons and influences behavior to allow animals to adapt to their environment. Photoperiod is also associated with seasonal rhythms of affective state, as evidenced by seasonality of several neuropsychiatric disorders. Interestingly, seasonality tends to be more prevalent in women for affective disorders such as major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder (BD). However, the underlying neurobiological processes contributing to sex-linked seasonality of affective behaviors are largely unknown. Mesolimbic dopamine input to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) contributes to the regulation of affective state and behaviors. Additionally, sex differences in the mesolimbic dopamine pathway are well established. Therefore, we hypothesize that photoperiod may drive differential modulation of NAc dopamine in males and females. Here, we used fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) to explore whether photoperiod can modulate subsecond dopamine signaling dynamics in the NAc core of male and female mice raised in seasonally relevant photoperiods. We found that photoperiod modulates dopamine signaling in the NAc core, and that this effect is sex-specific to females. Both release and uptake of dopamine were enhanced in the NAc core of female mice raised in long, summer-like photoperiods, whereas we did not find photoperiodic effects on NAc core dopamine in males. These findings uncover a potential neural circuit basis for sex-linked seasonality in affective behaviors.