Sensor sensibility: Divergent measurements of dopaminergic signaling to acute morphine administration via fiber photometry

Activity of the mesolimbic dopamine system has long been implicated in encoding primary rewards and contributing to the addictive properties of drugs of abuse. Dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTADA) of the midbrain typically show patterns of spontaneous burst activity that align with the onset of salient events or rewarding stimuli, resulting in phasic dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Fiber photometry is increasingly being used as an accessible technique to quantify neural activity with high temporal resolution at sensors offering signal specificity in stable recordings over extended periods of time. It has been well established by multiple techniques that opioids increase mesolimbic dopamine activity, likely through disinhibition of VTADA neurons. Here we used fiber photometry to compare sub-second transient events from VTADA neurons with GCaMP6f and dopamine release in the lateral shell of the NAc with dLight1.3b and GRABDA2h in response to morphine treatment. In weekly sessions, one dose of morphine was administered in escalating order (2.5, 5,7.5, and 10 mg/kg, intraperitoneal). Consistent with prior literature, both GCaMP6f in VTADA neurons and dLight1.3b in NAc showed patterns of increased signal following morphine treatment. In contrast, morphine suppressed transient activity at GRABDA2h sensors. Further analyses of whole signal streams from each sensor showed a generalized increase, but reduction in variability of the GRABDA2h signal, consistent with the interpretation of sensor saturation. Such results emphasize the importance of the inclusion of appropriate controls to contextualize the interpretation of biosensor responses, particularly in response to pharmacological treatment. HIGHLIGHTSO_LIMorphine elicited increased signaling in VTADA GCaMP6f and NAc dLight1.3b, consistent with prior literature C_LIO_LIMorphine suppressed NAc GRABDA2h signaling of transient events, suggesting saturation of GRABDA2h sensor C_LIO_LISensor validation with pharmacological challenges is critical for interpretation of data C_LI