Involvement of rodent prefrontal cortex subregions in strategy switching.

Ragozzino, Michael E.; Wilcox, Christine A.; Raso, M.; Kesner, Raymond P.

doi:10.1037/0735-7044.113.1.32

Cited by 214 publications

(172 citation statements)

References 38 publications

(70 reference statements)

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“…Gisquet-Verrier and Delatour (2006) recently concluded that previous experiments demonstrating delay-dependent deficits in mPFC-lesioned rats were better explained by an inability to adjust to novel training protocols. Indeed, recent studies focus on the role of mPFC in switching tasks or the sensory modality on which a decision is based (Ragozzino et al, 1999(Ragozzino et al, , 2003Birrell and Brown, 2000). Additional experiments using delay tasks that tightly control behavior will be needed to definitely test the working memory role of the mPFC.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Apparent Encoding of Sequential Context in Rat Medial Prefrontal Cortex Is Accounted for by Behavioral Variability

Euston¹,

McNaughton²

2006

J. Neurosci.

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Simple sequences can be represented via asymmetrically linked neural assemblies, provided that the elements of the sequence are unique. When elements repeat, however (e.g., A-B-C-B-A), the same element belongs to two separate "sequential contexts," and a more complex encoding mechanism is required. To enable correct sequence performance, some neural structure must provide a disambiguating signal that differentiates the two sequential contexts (i.e., B as an element of "A-B" as opposed to "C-B"). The disambiguating signal may derive from a form of working memory, or, in some cases, a simple timing mechanism may suffice. To investigate the possible role of medial prefrontal cortex in complex sequence encoding, rats were trained on a spatial sequence containing two adjacent repeated segments (e.g., A-B-C-D-B-C-E). The double-repeat procedure minimized behavioral differences in the second leg (C) of the repeat subsequence that arise in the first leg (B) because of differences in the entry point (e.g., A-B vs D-B). Far more cells were context sensitive along the first leg than along the second (36 vs 9%), and most of the differences were accounted for by systematic variations in the rat's trajectory, which were much larger along the first leg. There is thus little evidence for sequential context-discriminative activity in the medial prefrontal cortex that cannot plausibly be accounted for by context-dependent behavior. The finding that the rodent medial prefrontal cortex is highly sensitive to sensory-behavioral variables raises doubts about previous experiments that purport to show working memoryrelated activity in this region.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Apparent Encoding of Sequential Context in Rat Medial Prefrontal Cortex Is Accounted for by Behavioral Variability

Euston¹,

McNaughton²

2006

J. Neurosci.

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“…It is, however, possible that simply changing the number of extramaze cues can cause such results (Ragozzino et al, 1999;Gisquet-Verrier and Delatour, 2006). We next tested, by using a new set of animals with mPFC lesion, whether changing the environment from one cue to four cues affected performance of spatial memory retrieval.…”

Section: Contextual Change Does Not Disrupt the Performance Of Mpfc-lmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Medial Prefrontal Cortex Is Involved in Spatial Memory Retrieval under Partial-Cue Conditions

Jo¹,

Park²,

Kim³

et al. 2007

J. Neurosci.

112

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Brain circuits involved in pattern completion, or retrieval of memory from fragmented cues, were investigated. Using different versions of the Morris water maze, we explored the roles of the CA3 subregion of the hippocampus and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in spatial memory retrieval under various conditions. In a hidden platform task, both CA3 and mPFC lesions disrupted memory retrieval under partial-cue, but not under full-cue, conditions. For a delayed matching-to-place task, CA3 lesions produced a deficit in both forming and recalling spatial working memory regardless of extramaze cue conditions. In contrast, damage to mPFC impaired memory retrieval only when a fraction of cues was available. To corroborate the lesion study, we examined the expression of the immediate early gene c-fos in mPFC and the hippocampus. After training of spatial reference memory in full-cue conditions for 6 d, the same training procedure in the absence of all cues except one increased the number of Fos-immunoreactive cells in mPFC and CA3. Furthermore, mPFC inactivation with muscimol, a GABA agonist, blocked memory retrieval in the degraded-cue environment. However, mPFC-lesioned animals initially trained in a single-cue environment had no difficulty in retrieving spatial memory when the number of cues was increased, demonstrating that contextual change per se did not impair the behavioral performance of the mPFC-lesioned animals. Together, these findings strongly suggest that pattern completion requires interactions between mPFC and the hippocampus, in which mPFC plays significant roles in retrieving spatial information maintained in the hippocampus for efficient navigation.

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“…As in previous experiments (Ragozzino et al, 1999a(Ragozzino et al, , 1999bRagozzino, 2002) the stain was used to highlight the location of the cannula tip. Rats were perfused intracardially with 0.9% saline followed by a 4% formaldehyde solution.…”

Section: Histologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, lesions, temporary inactivation, or targeted pharmacological manipulations centered in the rat prelimbic area do not impair the initial acquisition or reversal learning of different discrimination tasks, i.e., a two-choice spatial discrimination (Birrell & Brown, 2000;Chudasasma et al, 2001;Ragozzino et al, 1999aRagozzino et al, , 2003, but do impair learning in extra-dimensional shifts when a rat must shift from using one type of attribute information to using a different type of attribute information (Birrell & Brown, 2000;deBruin, Sanchez-Santed, Heinsbroek, Donker, & Postmes, 1994;Ragozzino et al, 1999aRagozzino et al, , 2003Ragozzino, Wilcox, Raso, & Kesner, 1999b;Ragozzino, 2002;Stefani, Groth, & Moghaddam, 2003). The pattern of results suggests that the rat prelimbic area, located in the medial prefrontal cortex, supports learning when conditions demand complete inhibition of responding to stimuli in a particular dimension while learning what stimulus in a different dimension is critical for correct responding.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The involvement of the orbitofrontal cortex in learning under changing task contingencies

Kim

Ragozzino

2005

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

166

158

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Previous investigations examining the rat prefrontal cortex subregions in attentional-set shifting have commonly employed two-choice discriminations. To better understand how varying levels of difficulty influence the contribution of the prefrontal cortex to learning, the present studies examined the effects of orbitofrontal cortex inactivation in a two-or four-choice odor reversal learning test. Long-Evans rats were trained to dig in cups that contained distinct odors. In the twochoice odor discrimination, one odor cup was always associated with a cereal reinforcement in acquisition while the opposite odor cup was associated with a cereal reinforcement in reversal learning. In the four-choice odor discrimination, an additional two cups containing distinct odors were used that were never associated with reinforcement in acquisition or reversal learning. Bilateral infusions of the GABA-A agonist, muscimol (0.5 μg) into the orbitofrontal cortex did not impair acquisition of either the two-or four-choice discrimination task. However, muscimol infusions into the orbitofrontal cortex impaired two-and four-choice reversal learning. In the twochoice odor reversal, muscimol treatment selectively increased perseverative errors. In the fourchoice odor reversal, muscimol treatment increased perseverative, regressive, as well as irrelevant errors. These findings suggest that the orbital prefrontal cortex not only enables task switching by supporting the initial inhibition of a previously relevant choice pattern, but under increasing task demands also enables the reliable execution of a new choice pattern and reduction of interference to irrelevant stimuli.

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Involvement of rodent prefrontal cortex subregions in strategy switching.

Cited by 214 publications

References 38 publications

Apparent Encoding of Sequential Context in Rat Medial Prefrontal Cortex Is Accounted for by Behavioral Variability

Apparent Encoding of Sequential Context in Rat Medial Prefrontal Cortex Is Accounted for by Behavioral Variability

The Medial Prefrontal Cortex Is Involved in Spatial Memory Retrieval under Partial-Cue Conditions

The involvement of the orbitofrontal cortex in learning under changing task contingencies

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