A Role for Phasic Dopamine Release within the Nucleus Accumbens in Encoding Aversion: A Review of the Neurochemical Literature

Survival is dictated by an organism's fitness in approaching positive stimuli and avoiding harm. While a rich literature outlines a role for mesolimbic dopamine in reward and appetitive behaviors, dopamine's involvement in aversion and avoidance behaviors remains controversial. Debate surrounding dopamine's function in the processing of negative stimuli likely stems from conflicting results reported by single-unit electrophysiological studies. Indeed, a number of studies suggest that midbrain dopaminergic cells are inhibited by the presentation of negative or fearful stimuli, while others report no change, or even an increase, in their activity. These disparate results may be due to population heterogeneity. Recent evidence demonstrates that midbrain dopamine neurons are heterogeneous in their projection targets, responses to environmental stimuli, pharmacology, and influences on motivated behavior. Thus, in order to assemble an accurate account of dopamine function during aversive stimulus experience and related behavior, it is necessary to examine the functional output of dopamine neural activity at mesolimbic terminal regions. This Review presents a growing body of evidence that dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens encodes not only reward, but also aversion. For example, our laboratory recently utilized fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to show that real-time changes in accumbal dopamine release are detected when animals are presented with predictors of aversion and its avoidance. These data, along with other reports, support a considerably more nuanced view of dopamine neuron function, wherein accumbal dopamine release is differentially modulated by positive and negative affective stimuli to promote adaptive behaviors.