Instrumental learning in hyperdopaminergic mice

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Abstract

In two experiments we investigated the effects of elevated dopaminergic tone on instrumental learning and performance using dopamine transporter knockdown (DAT KD) mice. In Experiment 1, we showed that both DAT KD mice and wild-type controls were similarly sensitive to outcome devaluation induced by sensory specific satiety, indicating normal action–outcome learning in both groups. In Experiment 2, we used a Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer procedure to assess the potentiation of instrumental responding by Pavlovian conditional stimuli (CS). Although during the Pavlovian training phase the DAT KD mice entered the food magazine more frequently in the absence of the CS, when tested later both groups showed outcome-selective PIT. These results suggest that the elevated dopaminergic tone reduced the selectivity of stimulus control over conditioned behavior, but did not affect instrumental learning.

Introduction

Dopamine (DA) has a variety of effects on cortico-basal ganglia circuits. It is critical for the acquisition and modification of adaptive, purposive behaviors, though its effect at the level of neural systems remains controversial (Robinson and Berridge, 2003, Schultz, 1998a, West et al., 2003). In recent years, the role of DA in instrumental learning has also attracted much attention (Reynolds et al., 2001, Wickens and Koetter, 1995, Wickens et al., 2003). According to a popular account, DA serves to stamp in associations between stimulus and response during instrumental conditioning by facilitating heterosynaptic long-term plasticity in the striatum (Wickens et al., 2003). In support of this claim, it has been shown that DA innervation of the sensorimotor striatum is necessary for habit formation in instrumental conditioning (Faure, Haberland, Conde, & El Massioui, 2005). In vitro studies using brain slices have also demonstrated a critical role for DA in striatal plasticity (Kerr and Wickens, 2001, Lovinger et al., 2003).

Studies using either the water maze or the radial arm maze have also shown that the dorsal striatum plays a major role in tasks (e.g., win-stay) in which a discrete stimulus signals the location of the food and the response to be performed (Devan et al., 1999, Devan and White, 1999, Packard and McGaugh, 1992). More importantly, local injection of dopamine agonists into the dorsal striatum appears to enhance the acquisition of these tasks, suggesting a role for striatal dopamine in habit learning (Packard & White, 1991).

The idea that DA serves as the reinforcement signal in S–R habit learning is particularly interesting in light of the growing body of work in defining the neural substrates of instrumental learning. This work has shown that two largely independent neural systems control the learning and performance of instrumental actions such as lever pressing (Corbit and Balleine, 2003, Corbit et al., 2003, Yin et al., 2004, Yin et al., 2005a, Yin et al., 2005b). Initially, as animals learn to press the lever for food, they encode the specific relationship between their actions and the rewarding outcomes, and their behavior is controlled by encoded action–outcome associations. This action–outcome learning depends on the associative cortico-basal ganglia network, particularly that involving the dorsomedial striatum (Yin et al., 2005a, Yin et al., 2005b). After extended training, however, instrumental actions can become habitual, i.e., controlled by antecedent stimuli rather than by outcome expectancy (Dickinson & Balleine, 1993). This more gradual process of habit formation appears to depend on the sensorimotor cortico-basal ganglia network, particularly the dorsolateral striatum (Yin et al., 2004) and dopaminergic afferents to this area (Faure et al., 2005).

The present study used dopamine transporter knockdown (DAT KD) mice to assess the contribution of tonic DA to instrumental learning and performance. After release, DA is rapidly taken up by the high-affinity DAT, a protein expressed exclusively in brain regions where DA is synthesized (West et al., 2003). The DAT KD mice, which develop normally, have a 70% higher level of tonic DA, thus providing a useful tool for examining the effects of enhanced tonic DA on striatum-dependent learning (Pecina et al., 2003, Zhuang et al., 2001).

In particular, we tested the hypothesis that S–R habit learning might be enhanced in these hyperdopaminergic animals. If tonic DA is critical for habit learning, then given the same amount of training the instrumental performance of DAT KD mice should be predicted to be less sensitive to outcome devaluation than WT controls. Furthermore, given the evidence that habits depend for their performance on the motivating aspects of reward-related cues (Holland, 2004), instrumental performance in the DAT KD mice should be predicted to show increased sensitivity to the excitatory effects of Pavlovian cues. These two predictions were assessed in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively.

Section snippets

Subjects and apparatus

Eight wild-type mice and 6 KD mice (all males) were used for both experiments. The generation of DAT KD mice has been described in an earlier paper (Zhuang et al., 2001). Training and testing took place in 7 Med Associates (East Fairfield, VT) operant chambers housed within sound- and light-resistant walls. Each chamber was equipped with a pump fitted with a syringe that could deliver sucrose solution into a recessed magazine in the chamber, as well as a pellet dispenser that can deliver food

Enhanced motivation but normal acquisition of action–outcome learning

During the initial acquisition phase (Fig. 1A), both groups rapidly increased lever pressing over sessions. The acquisition of lever pressing for each reinforcer over 9 days of training was analyzed with a mixed two-way ANOVA. For pellets, there was a main effect of days (F8,12 = 25.2, p < .05), no main effect of genotype (F1,12 = 2.0, p > .05), and no significant interaction between days and genotype (F8,12 = 1.54, p > .05). For sucrose, there was a main effect of days (F8,12 = 15.1, p < .05), no main effect

Discussion

Experiment 1 assessed the content of instrumental learning in DAT KD mice using outcome devaluation, the canonical assay for detecting action–outcome encoding. Both DAT KD mice and their WT controls were able to acquire two actions each earning a different outcome. It should be noted that the instrumental training procedure used in this study is specifically designed to generate considerable sensitivity to outcome devaluation in the performance of the controls.

Although DAT KD mice showed

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by NIMH Grant MH56446 to B.W.B. and NIMH Grant MH66216 to X.Z.

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