Acquisition and performance of instrumental actions are assumed to require both action-outcome and stimulus-response (S-R) habit processes. Over the course of extended training, control over instrumental performance shifts from goal-directed action-outcome associations to S-R associations that progressively gain domination over behavior. Lesions of the lateral part of the dorsal striatum disrupt this process, and rats with lesions to the lateral striatum showed selective sensitivity to devaluation of the instrumental outcome (Yin et al., 2004), indicating that this area is necessary for habit formation. The present experiment further explored the basis of this dysfunction by examining the ability of rats subjected to bilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesions of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathway to develop behavioral autonomy with overtraining. Rats were given extended training on two cued instrumental tasks associating a stimulus (a tone or a light) with an instrumental action (lever press or chain pull) and a food reward (pellets or sucrose). Both tasks were run daily in separate sessions. Overtraining was followed by a test of goal sensitivity by satiety-specific devaluation of the reward. In control animals, one action (lever press) was insensitive to reward devaluation, indicating that it became a habit, whereas the second action (chain pull) was still sensitive to goal devaluation. This result provides evidence that the development of habit learning may depend on the characteristics of the response. In dopamine-depleted rats, lever press and chain pull remained sensitive to reward devaluation, evidencing a role of striatal dopamine transmission in habit formation.
An important issue in affective neuroscience concerns the role of mesocorticolimbic dopamine systems in positive-valenced motivation (e.g., reward) versus negative-valenced motivation (e.g., fear). Here, we assessed whether endogenous dopamine receptor stimulation in nucleus accumbens contributes to both appetitive behavior and fearful behavior that is generated in keyboard manner by local glutamate disruptions at different sites in medial shell. 6,7-Dinitroquinoxaline-2,3(1H,4H)-dione (DNQX) microinjections (450 ng) locally disrupt glutamate signals in Ͻ4 mm 3 of nucleus accumbens, and generate either desire or fear (or both) depending on precise rostrocaudal location in medial shell. At rostral shell sites, local AMPA/kainate blockade generates positive ingestive behavior, but the elicited motivated behavior becomes incrementally more fearful as the same microinjection is moved caudally. A dopamine-blocking mixture of D 1 and D 2 antagonists (raclopride and SCH-23390 [R(ϩ)-7-chloro-8-hydroxy-3-methyl-1-phenyl-2,3,4,5,-tetrahydro-1H-3-benzazepine hydrochloride]) was combined here in the same microinjection with DNQX to assess the role of endogenous local dopamine in mediating the DNQX-motivated behaviors. We report that local dopamine blockade prevented DNQX microinjections from generating appetitive behavior (eating) in rostral shell, and equally prevented DNQX from generating fearful behavior (defensive treading) in caudal shell. We conclude that local dopamine is needed to enable disruptions of corticolimbic glutamate signals in shell to generate either positive incentive salience or negative fearful salience (valence depending on site and other conditions). Thus, dopamine interacts with localization of valence-biased glutamate circuits in medial shell to facilitate keyboard stimulation of both appetitive and fearful motivations.
BackgroundGABAergic signals to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell arise from predominantly subcortical sources whereas glutamatergic signals arise mainly from cortical-related sources. Here we contrasted GABAergic and glutamatergic generation of hedonics versus motivation processes, as a proxy for comparing subcortical and cortical controls of emotion. Local disruptions of either signals in medial shell of NAc generate intense motivated behaviors corresponding to desire and/or dread, along a rostrocaudal gradient. GABA or glutamate disruptions in rostral shell generate appetitive motivation whereas disruptions in caudal shell elicit fearful motivation. However, GABA and glutamate signals in NAc differ in important ways, despite the similarity of their rostrocaudal motivation gradients.Methodology/Principal FindingsMicroinjections of a GABAA agonist (muscimol), or of a glutamate AMPA antagonist (DNQX) in medial shell of rats were assessed for generation of hedonic “liking” or “disliking” by measuring orofacial affective reactions to sucrose-quinine taste. Motivation generation was independently assessed measuring effects on eating versus natural defensive behaviors. For GABAergic microinjections, we found that the desire-dread motivation gradient was mirrored by an equivalent hedonic gradient that amplified affective taste “liking” (at rostral sites) versus “disliking” (at caudal sites). However, manipulation of glutamatergic signals completely failed to alter pleasure-displeasure reactions to sensory hedonic impact, despite producing a strong rostrocaudal gradient of motivation.Conclusions/SignificanceWe conclude that the nucleus accumbens contains two functional affective keyboards for amino-acid signals: a motivation-generating keyboard and a hedonic-generating keyboard. Corticolimbic glutamate signals and subcortical GABA signals equivalently engage the motivation keyboard to generate desire and-or dread. Only subcortical GABA signals additionally engage the hedonic keyboard to amplify affective “liking” and “disliking” reactions. We thus suggest that top-down cortical glutamate signals powerfully regulate motivation components, but are relatively unable to penetrate core hedonic components of emotion. That may carry implications of limits to therapeutic regulation of pathological emotions.
Amyloid-β peptide species accumulating in the brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease are assumed to have a neurotoxic action and hence to be key actors in the physiopathology of this neurodegenerative disease. We have studied a new mouse mutant (APPxPS1-Ki) line developing both early-onset brain amyloid-β deposition and, in contrast to most of transgenic models, subsequent neuronal loss. In 6-month-old mice, we observed cell layer atrophies in the hippocampus, together with a dramatic decrease in neurogenesis and a reduced brain blood perfusion as measured in vivo by magnetic resonance imaging. In these mice, neurological impairments and spatial hippocampal dependent memory deficits were also substantiated and worsened with aging. We described here a phenotype of APPxPS1-Ki mice that summarizes several neuroanatomical alterations and functional deficits evocative of the human pathology. Such a transgenic model that displays strong face validity might be highly beneficial to future research on AD physiopathogeny and therapeutics.
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