The role of glutamate signaling in incentive salience: second-by-second glutamate recordings in awake Sprague-Dawley rats

Seth R. Batten, Francois Pomerleau, Jorge Quintero, Greg A. Gerhardt, Joshua S. Beckmann

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

The attribution of incentive salience to reward-predictive stimuli has been shown to be associated with substance abuse-like behavior such as increased drug taking. Evidence suggests that glutamate neurotransmission and sequential N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) activation are involved in the attribution of incentive salience. Here, we further explore the role of second-by-second glutamate neurotransmission in the attribution of incentive salience to reward-predictive stimuli by measuring sign-tracking behavior during a Pavlovian conditioned approach procedure using ceramic-based microelectrode arrays configured for sensitive measures of extracellular glutamate in awake behaving Sprague-Dawley rats. Specifically, we show that there is an increase in extracellular glutamate levels in the prelimbic cortex (PrL) and the nucleus accumbens core (NAcC) during sign-tracking behavior to a food-predictive conditioned stimulus (CS+) compared to the presentation of a non-predictive conditioned stimulus (CS−). Furthermore, the results indicate greater increases in extracellular glutamate levels in the PrL compared to NAcC in response to the CS+, including differences in glutamate release and signal decay. Taken together, the present research suggests that there is differential glutamate signaling in the NAcC and PrL during sign-tracking behavior to a food-predictive CS+. (Figure presented.).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)276-286
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Neurochemistry
Volume145
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 International Society for Neurochemistry

Funding

The authors thank Josh Lavy for his technical assistance. This research was funded by NIDA grant DA033373. GAG is the principal owner of Quanteon, LLC that manufactures the FAST recording system. The remaining authors have nothing to disclose.

FundersFunder number
National Institute on Drug AbuseR00DA033373

    Keywords

    • glutamate
    • incentive salience
    • nucleus accumbens
    • pavlovian conditioned approach
    • prelimbic cortex
    • sign-tracking

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Biochemistry
    • Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

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