Dopamine dynamics promote cooperative behavior not just the rewards accompanying cooperation
Abstract
Cooperation requires precise spatiotemporal coordination, whereas previous studies have largely focused on decision-making neural circuits. We combined the genetically encoded dopamine (DA) sensor GRABDA3m with a cooperative nose-poke task to monitor DA dynamics in the medial shell of the nucleus accumbens (NAcmedSh) during cooperative learning and maintenance in mice. Fiber photometry revealed that cooperation-related DA transients gradually increased during learning and strongly correlated with cooperative success. In non-cooperative social and independent controls, DA signals were associated with reward delivery. Extinction and delayed-reward experiments dissociated cooperation-related DA activity from external rewards. Reversal experiments showed that this representation remained stable after task switching. Furthermore, local microinjection of the D1 receptor antagonist SCH-23390 (0.05 μg/side) into the NAc selectively reduced cooperative success without affecting feeding motivation or locomotor activity. These findings indicate that NAc DA signaling represents the intrinsic value of cooperation beyond external reward, with D1R-dependent phasic DA contributing to its maintenance.
Related
- Neuronal FICD shapes motivated behavior through modulation of dopamine receptor dynamics
- Disruption of opioid and mesolimbic dopamine dynamics and behavior upon intranasal delivery of opioids in mice
- Lateral hypothalamic control of the striatal dopamine landscape during consummatory behavior
- Supramammillary projections to the lateral preoptic area drive dopamine release and active behavior
- Mapping Mesolimbic Dopamine Projections to Subcortical Circuits Underlying Adaptive Behavior: A Human 7T Diffusion Tractography Atlas
BibTeX
@article{chai2026dopamine,
title = {{Dopamine dynamics promote cooperative behavior not just the rewards accompanying cooperation}},
author = {Kexin Chai and Jing Cai and Yizhou Zhuo and Nuo Da and Weilong Wang and Haolun Liu and Dezhong Yao and Yang Xia and Ke Chen and Lizhu Li},
journal = {iScience},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.isci.2026.117787},
url = {https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(26)03168-8},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Dopamine dynamics promote cooperative behavior not just the rewards accompanying cooperation
AU - Kexin Chai
AU - Jing Cai
AU - Yizhou Zhuo
AU - Nuo Da
AU - Weilong Wang
AU - Haolun Liu
AU - Dezhong Yao
AU - Yang Xia
AU - Ke Chen
AU - Lizhu Li
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/20
JO - iScience
DO - 10.1016/j.isci.2026.117787
UR - https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(26)03168-8
AB - Cooperation requires precise spatiotemporal coordination, whereas previous studies have largely focused on decision-making neural circuits. We combined the genetically encoded dopamine (DA) sensor GRABDA3m with a cooperative nose-poke task to monitor DA dynamics in the medial shell of the nucleus accumbens (NAcmedSh) during cooperative learning and maintenance in mice. Fiber photometry revealed that cooperation-related DA transients gradually increased during learning and strongly correlated with cooperative success. In non-cooperative social and independent controls, DA signals were associated with reward delivery. Extinction and delayed-reward experiments dissociated cooperation-related DA activity from external rewards. Reversal experiments showed that this representation remained stable after task switching. Furthermore, local microinjection of the D1 receptor antagonist SCH-23390 (0.05 μg/side) into the NAc selectively reduced cooperative success without affecting feeding motivation or locomotor activity. These findings indicate that NAc DA signaling represents the intrinsic value of cooperation beyond external reward, with D1R-dependent phasic DA contributing to its maintenance.
SN - 2589-0042
ER -