Krasnow Institute > Monday Seminars > Abstracts

Alerting the Rat to Reward:
Sub-second Dopamine Signals in the Ventral Striatum

Donita Robinson
Departments of Chemistry and Psychiatry
Center for Alcohol Studies
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Stimulants, opiates, cannabinoids, and ethanol all produce slow increases in extracellular dopamine in the brain. However, much less is known about the effect of addictive drugs on very fast dopamine signals - dopamine transients - due to limitations of available neurochemical techniques. Dr. Donita Robinson will describe her recent measurements of subsecond, high concentrations of extracellular dopamine in specific brain regions of rats associated with natural and drug reinforcement. These data, collected using state-of-the-art electrochemical techniques in freely-moving rats, provide an unprecedented window onto real-time neurotransmission associated with motivated behavior.

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