Modeling of Selection of Relevant Cues in Rats: Effects of Task Complexity and Lesions of Medial Prefrontal Cortex

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
J. Svoboda ◽  
K. Blahna ◽  
P. Telensky ◽  
J. Bures ◽  
A. Stuchlik
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
Vestibular Stimulation ◽  
Psychiatric Research ◽  
Avoidance Task ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Place Avoidance ◽  
Selection Of

One of key features of cognitive processing in both humans and animals is to select relevant stimuli. Several rodent spatial paradigms proved to be useful in biological psychiatric research. A place avoidance task has been previously used in animal model of cognitive deficits in psychosis.Here we present modifications of the place avoidance paradigm, assessing the ability of selecting appropriate cues at various levels of task complexity. Moreover, we present a pilot experiment showing an effect of lesion to medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) on those tasks. Generally, the place avoidance apparatus consists of a circular arena elevated 1m above the floor. Rats are trained to avoid an unmarked forbidden sector, entering which is punished by mild footshocks. The sector can be defined with respect to the room or arena frame, which can be dissociated by arena rotation. Moreover, we studied an ability of rats to avoid the place defined by salient rotating object.The results showed that animals with mPFC lesion were capable of avoiding a place defined either by distal of by proximal cues, similarly as controls. However, both control and mPFC-lesioned rats had difficulties to avoid a place surrounding moving salient object. The performance increased whenever the rat was passively rotated with the arena, suggesting that vestibular stimulation enhanced the directed attention to an object. The poster will discuss the present findings and outline the future directions with emphasis on their utilization in animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders.Supported by GACR grants 309/07/0341 and 309/06/1231.

scholarly journals Transient Inactivation of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Ventral Hippocampus Impairs Active Place Avoidance Retrieval on a Rotating Arena

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Cernotova ◽  
Ales Stuchlik ◽  
Jan Svoboda
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Ventral Hippocampus ◽  
Avoidance Task ◽  
Exact Role ◽  
Spatial Coordination ◽  
Place Avoidance ◽  
Long Evans

It is well known that communication between the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the ventral hippocampus (vHPC) is critical for various cognitive and behavioral functions. However, the exact role of these structures in spatial coordination remains to be clarified. Here we sought to determine the involvement of the mPFC and the vHPC in the spatial retrieval of a previously learned active place avoidance task in adult male Long-Evans rats, using a combination of unilateral and bilateral local muscimol inactivations. Moreover, we tested the role of the vHPC-mPFC pathway by performing combined ipsilateral and contralateral inactivations. Our results showed not only bilateral inactivations of either structure, but also the combined inactivations impaired the retrieval of spatial memory, whereas unilateral one-structure inactivations did not yield any effect. Remarkably, muscimol injections in combined groups exerted similar deficits, regardless of whether the inactivations were contralateral or ipsilateral. These findings confirm the importance of these structures in spatial cognition and emphasize the importance of the intact functioning of the vHPC-mPFC pathway.

scholarly journals Is the rat prefrontal cortex crucial for cognitive control during spatial cognition?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eun Hye Park ◽  
Kally C. O’Reilly ◽  
David Taborga ◽  
Kyndall Nicholas ◽  
Armaan S Ahmed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Metabolic Activity ◽  
Dorsal Hippocampus ◽  
Ibotenic Acid ◽  
Avoidance Task ◽  
Place Avoidance ◽  
Winner Take All ◽  
Take All

ABSTRACTCognitive control tasks require that the subject use one class of information and ignore another competing class of information. In prior work, we used an active place avoidance task on a rotating arena that requires rodent subjects to avoid shock by using information about their location in the stationary room and ignore information about their location on the rotating floor. During the task, the discharge of hippocampus neurons alternates judiciously between representing stationary and rotating locations according to the proximity of shock, demonstrating cognitive control directly in the neural representations of hippocampal discharge. The central role of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in cognitive control is well established in the primate literature, and largely accepted in the rodent literature because mPFC damage causes deficits in tasks that may require cognitive control, as inferred, typically from the task design. Here we test whether rat mPFC lesion impairs the active place avoidance task that requires cognitive control in order to test the “central-computation” hypothesis in which the mPFC is hypothesized to be essential for the computations required for cognitive control. Although ibotenic acid lesion of the mPFC was effective and caused alterations in the coordination of metabolic activity, including the dorsal hippocampus to the dorsal subiculum, its output structure, nonetheless the lesion did not impair active place avoidance. These data support an alternative “local computation” hypothesis: the computations required for cognitive control can occur locally in brain networks independently of the mPFC as a central computational locus for cognitive control.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTThe medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is considered to be crucial for cognitive control of information, operating with winner-take-all dynamics that allows subjects to make judicious choices in the presence of alternatives. Alternatively, cognitive control may also result from computations in neural circuits such as hippocampus, with a neural architecture for winner-take-all computations. We investigated whether mPFC lesion impairs an active place avoidance task that is demonstrated to require cognitive control that is observed in hippocampus place cell spike train dynamics. We produced mPFC lesions with brain-wide consequences that reduced resting-state coordination of metabolic activity within hippocampus and related areas. Nonetheless mPFC lesion did not impair the active place avoidance task, demonstrating that cognitive control does not always depend on mPFC.

scholarly journals S116 Breathlessness in COPD is associated with altered cognitive processing in the medial prefrontal cortex

Thorax ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 68 (Suppl 3) ◽  
pp. A60.2-A61
Author(s):  
M Herigstad ◽  
A Hayen ◽  
E Evans ◽  
R Davies ◽  
M Hardinge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Processing

scholarly journals A Decade of Progress in Deep Brain Stimulation of the Subcallosal Cingulate for the Treatment of Depression

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 3260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharafuddin Khairuddin ◽  
Fung Yin Ngo ◽  
Wei Ling Lim ◽  
Luca Aquili ◽  
Naveed Ahmed Khan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Deep Brain Stimulation ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Brain Stimulation ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Treatment Of Depression ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Deep Brain

Major depression contributes significantly to the global disability burden. Since the first clinical study of deep brain stimulation (DBS), over 446 patients with depression have now undergone this neuromodulation therapy, and 29 animal studies have investigated the efficacy of subgenual cingulate DBS for depression. In this review, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the progress of DBS of the subcallosal cingulate in humans and the medial prefrontal cortex, its rodent homolog. For preclinical animal studies, we discuss the various antidepressant-like behaviors induced by medial prefrontal cortex DBS and examine the possible mechanisms including neuroplasticity-dependent/independent cellular and molecular changes. Interestingly, the response rate of subcallosal cingulate Deep brain stimulation marks a milestone in the treatment of depression. DBS achieved response and remission rates of 64–76% and 37–63%, respectively, from clinical studies monitoring patients from 6–24 months. Although some studies showed its stimulation efficacy was limited, it still holds great promise as a therapy for patients with treatment-resistant depression. Overall, further research is still needed, including more credible clinical research, preclinical mechanistic studies, precise selection of patients, and customized electrical stimulation paradigms.

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