Deletion Impacts Motivational Control Without Overt Disruptions to Striatal Dopamine.

Background: Disrupted motivational control is a common-but poorly treated-feature of psychiatric disorders, arising via aberrant mesolimbic dopaminergic signaling. GPR88 is an orphan G protein-coupled receptor that is highly expressed in the striatum and therefore well placed to modulate disrupted signaling. While the phenotype of knockout mice suggests a role in motivational pathways, it is unclear whether GPR88 is involved in reward valuation and/or effort-based decision making in a sex-dependent manner and whether this involves altered dopamine function.