Running Head: GABAERGIC ELICITATION OF FEAR AND FEEDING 1 GABAergic Elicitation of Fear and Feeding in Nucleus Accumbens Shell Does Not Depend on Local Dopamine by

Striking similarities exist in the generation of appetitive and defensive motivated behaviors by both glutamate disruption and GABAergic inhibition in nucleus accumbens shell. Rostral accumbens shell inhibition produces intense eating, whereas more caudal inhibitions generate increasingly fearful behaviors. Yet, these two forms of amino acid inhibition modulate very different sources of input: glutamate blockade largely affects corticolimbic glutamate inputs, whereas GABAergic inhibition mimics intrinsic, or subcortical, GABA inputs. GABA signals also exhibit an additional ability to mediate hedonic pleasure and disgust, a process known to be dopamine-independent. Considering that glutamate-induced motivated behaviors have been shown to be dependent on local endogenous dopamine, this experiment examined whether appetitive and defensive behaviors generated by the GABAA agonist muscimol in accumbens shell exhibit similar dopamine dependence. Presence of a local dopamine blockade did not significantly affect GABAergic elicitation of feeding and fear, suggesting that GABA-generated motivation does not depend on local endogenous dopamine.