Excitatory and Inhibitory Signaling in the Nucleus Accumbens Encode Different Aspects of a Pavlovian Cue in Sign Tracking and Goal Tracking Rats
When a Pavlovian cue is presented separately from its associated reward, some animals will acquire a sign tracking (ST) response - approach and/or interaction with the cue - while others will acquire a goal tracking response - approach to the site of reward. We have previously shown that cue-evoked...
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| Published in: | eNeuro Vol. 10; no. 9; p. ENEURO.0196-23.2023 |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
United States
Society for Neuroscience
01-09-2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | When a Pavlovian cue is presented separately from its associated reward, some animals will acquire a sign tracking (ST) response - approach and/or interaction with the cue - while others will acquire a goal tracking response - approach to the site of reward. We have previously shown that cue-evoked excitations in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) encode the vigor of both behaviors; in contrast, reward-related responses diverge over the course of training, possibly reflecting neurochemical differences between sign tracker and goal tracker individuals. However, a substantial subset of neurons in the NAc exhibit inhibitory, rather than excitatory, cue-evoked responses, and the evolution of their signaling during Pavlovian conditioning remains unknown. Using single-neuron recordings in behaving rats, we show that NAc neurons with cue-evoked inhibitions have distinct coding properties from neurons with cue-evoked excitations. Cue-evoked inhibitions become more numerous over the course of training and, like excitations, may encode the vigor of sign tracking and goal tracking behavior. However, the responses of cue-inhibited neurons do not evolve differently between sign tracker and goal tracker individuals. Moreover, cue-evoked inhibitions, unlike excitations, are insensitive to extinction of the cue-reward relationship. Finally, we show that cue-evoked excitations are greatly diminished by reward devaluation, while inhibitory cue responses are virtually unaffected. Overall, these findings converge with existing evidence that cue-excited neurons in NAc, but not cue-inhibited neurons, are profoundly sensitive to the same behavior variations that are often associated with changes in dopamine release. |
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| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 The authors declare no competing financial interests. This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants R03DA045913 and K01DA051662 (to S.E.M.). Author contributions: S.E.M. designed research; K.D., Z.S.G., and S.E.M. performed research; S.E.M. analyzed data; K.D., Z.S.G., and S.E.M. wrote the paper. Z. S. Gillis’s present address: Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27101. |
| ISSN: | 2373-2822 2373-2822 |
| DOI: | 10.1523/ENEURO.0196-23.2023 |