Dopamine depletion reduces the motivation to pursue pleasure, even if the ability to experience pleasure remains intact.

“it will go for rewards just fine it just won't work for them it won't do the work that you need to get a reward but if you just put it in front of them they'll take it”

“And what you find is that the depletion of dopamine does not inhibit an ability to experience pleasure necessarily. It inhibits an ability to pursue or go through the series of action steps in order to achieve pleasure.”

“What you find is that those animals will still enjoy pleasure. However, their motivation to achieve pleasure is vastly reduced. In fact, if you place the item of pleasure, the mate, the food, etc., even just one rat's length away from that rat, the rat without dopamine will not even move one length of its own body in order to achieve that pleasure.”