Pharmacological characterisation of the effort for reward task as a measure of motivation for reward in male mice

RATIONALE: Motivational deficits are a common symptom shared across multiple psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Effort-based decision-making tasks are a translatable method for assessing motivational state. Much of the preclinical validation of the task derives from acute pharmacological manipulations in rats. However, mice currently offer a greater genetic toolkit to study risk genes and phenotypic models. Despite this, there is limited characterisation of their behaviour in this type of motivation task. OBJECTIVES: Here, we investigate the effort for reward (EfR) task as a measure of motivational state in mice using drugs previously shown to modulate effort-based decision-making in rats and humans. METHOD: Using male C57bl/6j mice, we test the effects of drugs which modulate DA transmission. We also test the effects of CP101-606 which does not act directly via DA modulation but has been shown to exert beneficial effects on motivational state. Finally, we test the sensitivity of the task to a chronic corticosterone (CORT) treatment. RESULTS: Amphetamine, methylphenidate, and CP101606 in mice increased high-effort responses for high-value reward, while administration of haloperidol decreased high-effort responses. Surprisingly, tetrabenazine had no effect at the doses tested. Chronic, low-dose CORT consumption did not alter task performance. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that the EfR task is sensitive to acute dopaminergic modulation and NR2B selective antagonism in mice. However, it may lack sensitivity to non-acute phenotypic models. Further work is required to demonstrate the utility of the task in this context. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00213-023-06420-9.