The neural mechanism of relief in animals

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K21808
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 10:Psychology and related fields
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Takaaki Ozawa 大阪大学, 蛋白質研究所, 助教 (90625352)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-06-28 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 安心感 / ドーパミン / マウス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Pleasure and pain are fundamental emotions to regulate our decision-making. Relief is another important positive emotion that is defined as the removal/attenuation of expected/ongoing aversion. Although previous studies have revealed the neural mechanisms underlying pleasure and pain, that of relief has been largely unknown. In the present study, we established the behavioral paradigm, which is based on the pavlovian conditioning, to assess relief-like behavior in mice. By taking advantage of this task, we also found that the dopaminergic circuit is activated when mice feel relief.

Free Research Field

実験心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究が着目する神経伝達物質ドーパミンは，脳内報酬系として快情動を制御しているばかりでなく，粘り強い行動の持続やストレス耐性にも重要な役割を果たすことが示されてきた。本研究が明らかにした，安心感におけるドーパミンの積極的役割は，①安心感と快情動の関係性，②安心感のストレス耐性における重要性，を解明する上で重要な知見である。また，ストレスへの鋭敏化によって特徴づけられる精神疾患の治療法開発にも貢献することが期待される。