Opposing Catecholamine Changes in the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis During Intracranial Self-Stimulation and Its Extinction

While studies suggest that both dopamine and norepinephrine neurotransmission support reinforcement learning, the role of dopamine has been emphasized. As a result, little is known about norepinephrine signaling during reward learning and extinction. Both dopamine and norepinephrine projections innervate distinct regions of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), a structure that mediates behavioral and autonomic responses to stress and anxiety. We investigated whether norepinephrine release in the ventral (v) BNST and dopamine release in the dorsolateral (dl) BNST correlate with reward learning during intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS)