Dopamine dips during unrewarded actions promote punishment-resistant reward seeking

bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) 2026 Preprint Open access

Read full text
Authors: Nkatha Mwenda, Jacob A. Nadel, Tong Shen, Jillian L. Seiler, Talia N. Lerner
DOI: 10.64898/2026.08.01.742224
Cited by: 1
References: 30

Abstract

Punishment-resistant reward-seeking, a hallmark of addiction, is less prominent in females than males. We found that chronic estradiol manipulations increased punishment resistance in female mice without increasing dopamine peaks on rewarded actions as expected, instead exaggerating dopamine dips on unrewarded actions; optogenetically mimicking these dips accelerated punishment resistance in females and males. These results suggest dopamine dips suppress learning from unrewarded actions, consistent with policy-based accounts of dopamine function.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior Zebrafish Biomedical Research Applications Stress Responses and Cortisol

Publication details

Journal / source
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Publisher
openRxiv
Publication date
3 August 2026
Language
EN
Document type
Preprint