While the precise role of dopamine in the subjective experience of reward is highly controversial among neuroscientists, the release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens is widely considered to be at least partially responsible for cocaine's rewarding effects.
Dopaminski prenašalec, ki se sprošča med živčnim prenosom, je običajno recikliran s tem prenašalcem, transporter se veže na transmiter in ga izčrpa iz sinaptične špranje nazaj v presinaprični nevron, kjer se shrani v shranjevalnih veziklih.