# Dopaminergic plasticity underlying bonding and loss

> **NIH NIH R36** · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO · 2022 · $43,344

## Abstract

Project Summary:
While strong and healthy social relationships positively contribute to our health and wellbeing, their loss is
detrimental for our mental and physical health. Monogamous prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) provide an
ideal species to examine the neurobiology of social bonding and loss. Prior work has shown that activation of
dopamine (DA) receptors in the nucleus accumbens is a critical mediator of bond formation and maintenance.
Specifically, DA receptor activation is essential for forming selective affiliation towards a mating partner and
subsequent aggression towards non-partners, suggesting that the functional role of DA in the nucleus
accumbens transitions from partner affiliation to non-partner aggression as the bond matures. Other work
suggests plasticity of the accumbal DA system accompanies bonding, including changes in DA receptor
expression and ex vivo DA release. However, changes in receptor expression or capacity for release do not
fully explain the shift in the function of DA from partner affiliation to novel aggression. DA release and
activation of receptors needs to be context specific in order to display the appropriate behavior towards the
partner or novel voles. Thus, my research examines how the dopaminergic system changes as a function of
bonding in loss, including changes in release between the partner and novel voles.
 To do so, my dissertation leverages GRABDA and fiber photometry, two tools that I developed in prairie
voles, to detect in vivo DA release in behaving voles with millisecond resolution. I use these tools to investigate
three ways in which social bonding and loss can cause plasticity in the DA system that mediates the transition
in bonding behaviors. In Aim 1 I ask whether there are bonding induced in vivo changes in DA release
capacity. My preliminary work shows that initial bond formation and bond loss decreases optogenetically
evoked DA release in the nucleus accumbens. Aim 1 will determine whether my observed results are
specifically due to bonding/loss from an opposite sex partner, not from other experimental conditions or
general social isolation. In Aim 2, I examine how DA release elicited by unrestricted social interaction with a
partner or novel vole changes during bond maturation and loss. Finally, in Aim 3, I use a social operant
paradigm to distinguish DA release during the appetitive and consummatory aspects of interaction with a
partner or novel across bonding and loss. In sum, this proposal uses novel behavioral and technical
approaches in prairie voles to provide insights into the dopaminergic dynamics that contribute to within-
individual plasticity that enables social bonding.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10386496
- **Project number:** 1R36MH129127-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
- **Principal Investigator:** Anne Pierce
- **Activity code:** R36 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $43,344
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-12-10 → 2023-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10386496

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10386496, Dopaminergic plasticity underlying bonding and loss (1R36MH129127-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10386496. Licensed CC0.

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