{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,23]],"date-time":"2026-10-23T21:19:16Z","timestamp":1792790356276,"version":"4.5.0"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]]},"group-title":"Neuroscience","reference-count":71,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]],"date-time":"2026-09-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790208000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Institute of Health","award":["R01MH132908"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01MH132908"]}]},{"name":"National Institute of Health","award":["F31MH141997"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["F31MH141997"]}]},{"name":"National Science Foundation","award":["2239635"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2239635"]}]},{"name":"McKnight Fundation"},{"name":"Simons Foundation","id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01cmst727","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Moore Foundation"},{"name":"Heising-Simons Fellowship"},{"name":"Brain Foundation","id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01e3kxx79","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Schmidt Sciences","id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/044fk6795","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Rennie Fund"},{"name":"Burroughs Wellcome Fund","id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01d35cw23","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Chan Zuckerberg Biohub"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>The loss of close social relationships triggers profound mental and physical health consequences across social species. We utilized the socially selective prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) to investigate how 5-day separation from a bonded mate or peer partner shapes social motivation and dopamine release kinetics in males and females. Prior to partner loss, baseline social motivation to access a partner or a novel object differed by sex and relationship type (mate or peer partnership). Across all groups, however, separation induced heightened partner-seeking. Partner loss enhanced dopamine signaling in the nucleus accumbens, increasing evoked dopamine release, the number of putative dopamine release sites, and tyrosine hydroxylase abundance, regardless of sex or relationship type. These findings suggest that mesolimbic reward circuitry rapidly adapts to the loss of a bonded partner, signaling a critical social deficit across relationship frameworks. Furthermore, by leveraging synthetic sensors, this study provides novel subcellular insights into presynaptic dopaminergic plasticity following 5-day relationship disruption, directly linking relationship loss to heightened social motivation and shifts in reward signaling.<\/jats:p>\n                <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Significance Statement<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>From friendships to mate partnerships, reciprocal social connections are vital for humans and other species that form social bonds. This study explores the behavioral and neural consequences of disrupting these relationships using the prairie vole, a species capable of forming selective bonds with both peers and mates. We demonstrate that, despite baseline sex and relationship-type differences in social reward, separation from a bonded partner triggers a uniform enhancement in social drive accompanied by elevated accumbal dopamine release and synthesis. This reveals a conserved, homeostatic reward mechanism that treats the loss of relationships as a critical deficit, advancing our understanding of the neurobiology of social bonding as well as grief and loneliness.<\/jats:p>\n                <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.09.22.753547","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]],"date-time":"2026-09-24T10:05:13Z","timestamp":1790244313000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Acute partner loss enhances social motivation and nucleus accumbens dopamine release in prairie voles"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0959-7088","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Natsumi","family":"Komatsu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana 61801 IL USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1521-4397","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alexis M.","family":"Black","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Integrative Biology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley 94720 CA USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Stephen E.","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Integrative Biology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley 94720 CA USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5832-8522","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Markita P.","family":"Landry","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neuroscience, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley 94720 CA USA"},{"name":"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley 94720 CA USA"},{"name":"California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley 94720 CA USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1249-9182","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Annaliese K.","family":"Beery","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Integrative Biology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley 94720 CA USA"},{"name":"Department of Neuroscience, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley 94720 CA USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"54368","reference":[{"key":"2026092708450777000_2026.09.22.753547v1.1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1511085112"},{"key":"2026092708450777000_2026.09.22.753547v1.2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e2424519","DOI":"10.1001\/jamanetworkopen.2024.24519","article-title":"Social Isolation Changes and Long-Term Outcomes Among Older Adults","volume":"7","year":"2024","journal-title":"JAMA Netw. 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