# Cue-triggered Reward Seeking

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2021 · $370,500

## Abstract

Addictive urges often have several specific motivation features: the motivational urge is
a) highly intense, b) narrowly focused on the addicted target (e.g., drugs), and c)
sometimes seemingly `irrational', in the sense of not being explainable by past or
expected reinforcement values even for the addicts themselves. For example, relapse can
occur even when the addict is no longer in withdrawal, and knows from past experience
that the available drug is not very pleasant, and does not expect the future drug to be
very pleasant.

Here we use optogenetic tools to study brain mechanisms that generate these powerful
motivation features. This proposal takes advantage of our recent discovery that
optogenetic stimulation of amygdala-related circuitry creates powerful motivational
urges for cocaine or sucrose rewards that are a) narrowly focused, b) highly intense, and
c) irrational in the sense of exceeding the sum of component reinforcements. This
manipulation recreates in the laboratory the same features of motivation that need
understanding in addiction.

Experiment 1 will identify the crucial anatomical site within amygdala, and identify the
particular neuron subpopulations, responsible for generating this intense yet narrow
urge for a particular reward, even at the expense of other rewards. Experiment 2 will
examine larger brain interactions of the amygdala with mesolimbic circuits, to identify
the responsible larger brain circuitry. Experiment 3 will examine how drug-induced
mesolimbic sensitization interacts with this circuitry to exacerbate these three features of
addictive-like motivation. Altogether, these studies will help clarify how brain
mechanisms generate excessive yet narrow, and even irrational, urges (similar to the
addictive urges that make drug addicts relapse).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10146991
- **Project number:** 5R01DA015188-15
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Kent C. Berridge
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $370,500
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2003-09-01 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10146991

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10146991, Cue-triggered Reward Seeking (5R01DA015188-15). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10146991. Licensed CC0.

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