# Elucidating the role of nucleus accumbens activity in the propensity to attribute incentive salience to reward cues

> **NIH NIH F99** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2021 · $39,286

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Cue-reward associations are critical for developing adaptive responses to cues that signal the availability of food,
mating opportunities, and other rewards. During associative learning, cues acquire predictive value, meaning
they become linked to an explicit representation of the outcome, but in some instances, they may also acquire
incentive salience, meaning they take on some of the attractive and motivational properties of the reward. The
excessive attribution of incentive or motivational value can result in cues gaining excessive control over behavior,
and lead to maladaptive responses such as those associated with addiction. But the propensity to attribute cues
with incentive salience is highly variable and seems to greatly depend on the way individuals learn cue-reward
associations. Using the “sign- and goal-tracking” rat model of associative learning we can specifically study
individual variation in the propensity to attribute incentive salience to reward cues, and dissect the
neurobiological mechanism underlying predisposition to cue-driven psychopathologies like addiction. Compared
to “goal-trackers” (GTs), “sign-trackers” (STs) not only use reward cues as predictors, but also attribute them
with incentive salience and find them rewarding, resulting in increased motivation towards and fixation on these
cues. STs are more impulsive as well as susceptible to cue-induced reinstatement or “relapse” of drugs of abuse
when compared to GTs, making this an excellent model to study predisposition to addiction-like behaviors. The
focus of this proposal is on the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a region known to be a critical component of the
“motive circuit”. STs and GTs exhibit different cue- and reward-evoked patterns of activity in the NAc during
Pavlovian learning, but it remains to be determined what neurobiological mechanisms give rise to these different
NAc activity profiles and how they may account for the ST/GT phenotype. The proposed experiments will test
the hypothesis that there are functional differences between STs and GTs in the strength of synaptic inputs to
the NAc, particularly from regions like the ventral hippocampus (vHPC), which is known to be necessary for the
attribution of incentive salience. Determining the specific neuronal properties and neural pathways involved in
the attribution of incentive salience will increase our understanding on the specific risk factors associated with
addiction vulnerability and lead to better biomarkers and tailored therapeutic approaches to treat individuals at
higher risk of addiction.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10149025
- **Project number:** 1F99NS120544-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Cristina Emma Maria-Rios
- **Activity code:** F99 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $39,286
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-12-01 → 2022-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10149025

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10149025, Elucidating the role of nucleus accumbens activity in the propensity to attribute incentive salience to reward cues (1F99NS120544-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10149025. Licensed CC0.

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