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Women and men can differ in their propensity to take risks and develop addiction disorders. A critical biological factor in the development of addiction is aberrant dopamine (DA) neurotransmission. Sexual dimorphisms in behavioural control by the DA system may underlie these phenomena. A better understanding of how sex differences contribute to the DAergic regulation of addiction-relevant behaviours will inform pharmacotherapy. We recently showed that when male rats were allowed to volitionally take cocaine, they developed significant deficits in decision making. We were therefore caused to probe the role of DA neurons in this cocaine-induced descent into maladaptive decision making in both sexes. Through viral-mediated gene transfer using a floxed vector, we targeted over-expression of an inhibitory DREADD (hM4) to ventral tegmental area (VTA) DA neurons in female and male rats selectively …