Anterior cingulate cortex modulates the affective‐motivative dimension of hyperosmolality‐induced thirst

Abstract

Neuroimaging studies have shown that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is consistently activated by thirst and may underlie the affective motivation of drinking behaviour demanded by thirst. But direct evidence for this hypothesis is lacking. The present study evaluated potential correlations between ACC neuronal activity and drinking behaviour in rats injected with different concentrations of saline. We observed an increased number of c‐Fos‐positive neurons in the ACC after injection of hypertonic saline, indicating strong ACC neuronal activation under hyperosmotic thirst. Increased firing rates of putative ACC pyramidal neurons preceded drinking behaviour and positively correlated with both the total duration of drinking and the total amount of water consumed. Chemogenetic inhibition of ACC pyramidal neurons changed drinking behaviour from an explosive and short‐lasting pattern to a gradual but more persistent pattern, without affecting either the total duration of drinking or the total amount of water consumed. Together, these findings support a role of the ACC in modulating the affective‐motivative dimension of hyperosmolality‐induced thirst.

A Novel Cortical Mechanism for Top-Down Control of Water Intake

“…The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) participates in the regulation of water intake [1, 3,4,11,14,15]. Therefore, we generated ACC-CaMKIIa-CB 1 -RS mice, in which CB 1 receptors were reexpressed only in ACC principal neurons (Figures 2A-2C) [46].…”

A Hybrid Titanium-Softmaterial, High-Strength, Transparent Cranial Window for Transcranial Injection and Neuroimaging

“…For example, fMRI provides an excellent aid for the study of psychiatric disorders [ 3 , 4 ]. However, for dynamic observation of neuronal and synaptic activities at the single-cell level down to molecular scales, craniotomy experiments are frequently required for implantation of cortical and deep-brain electrodes or electrode arrays [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]. For two-photon experiments and fluorescence measurements, cranial surgery is also performed in installation of many novel brain-computer-interfaces (BCIs) [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ].…”