Cholinergic receptor activation potently controls striatal levels of DA, a neuromodulator crucial for the expression of coordinated motor activity and Pavlovian cue-reward associations (reviewed by Wise, 2004; Sulzer, 2011). In this report, we characterize the effects of selective CIN activation on accumbal DA levels. We find that, while having a relatively sparse distribution, CINs profoundly modulate DAergic output in NAc.
