Nucleus accumbens acetylcholine dips track reward value and temporal costs to shape delay discounting

Cue-evoked acetylcholine dips in the nucleus accumbens of mice track relative reward magnitude and are reduced as delays increase during delay discounting.

• Why it matters: Choice requires combining learned reward value with changing temporal costs, but the neural signals integrating these factors—especially involving acetylcholine—were unclear.
• What they did: Using in vivo fiber photometry in a delay discounting task, mice chose between a small immediate reward and a larger delayed reward while NAc ACh dynamics were recorded. Optogenetically enhancing the dips tested their functional role.
• The result: ACh dips diminish with increasing delays, and boosting them attenuates the delay-dependent decline in choosing the larger delayed reward, implicating NAc cue-evoked ACh dips in adaptive temporal-cost decisions.

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