Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2000 Jun;114(3):468-83.
doi: 10.1037//0735-7044.114.3.468.

Dissociation of Pavlovian and instrumental incentive learning under dopamine antagonists

Affiliations

Dissociation of Pavlovian and instrumental incentive learning under dopamine antagonists

A Dickinson et al. Behav Neurosci. 2000 Jun.

Abstract

The administration of the dopamine antagonists, pimozide and alpha-flupenthixol, to rats reduced Pavlovian-instrumental transfer when a conditioned stimulus (CS) that had been paired with a noncontingent food reward was tested on instrumental performance. The administration of the antagonists during Pavlovian conditioning and/or testing abolished the enhancement of instrumental performance by the CS. The effect of both antagonists on instrumental incentive learning was then examined. After training in which the rats performed 2 responses for different food rewards, they consumed 1 type food under the antagonists and the other type under vehicle during reexposure. When instrumental responding was subsequently tested in extinction, performance was unaffected by whether the rats had been reexposed to the training reward under the antagonists. These results suggest that Pavlovian and instrumental incentive learning are not mediated by a common process.

PubMed Disclaimer

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources