scholarly journals Alcohol Dependence Differentially Alters Action and Outcome Related Orbitofrontal Cortex Activity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Cazares ◽  
Drew C. Schreiner ◽  
Christina M. Gremel
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Alcohol Dependence ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Lever Press ◽  
Behavioral Control ◽  
Extracellular Recordings ◽  
Instrumental Task ◽  
Lever Pressing ◽  
Outcome Devaluation

AbstractAlcohol dependence results in long-lasting deficits in decision-making and behavioral control. Neurobiological investigations have identified orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) as important for value contributions to decision-making as well as action control, and alcohol dependence induces long-lasting changes to OFC function that persist into protracted withdrawal. However, it is unclear which contributing OFC computations are disrupted in alcohol dependence. Here, we combined a well-validated mouse model of alcohol dependence with in vivo extracellular recordings during an instrumental task in which lever press duration serves as the contingency, and lever pressing is sensitive to outcome devaluation. We found prior alcohol dependence did not impair use of duration contingency control but did reduce sensitivity to outcome devaluation. Further, alcohol dependence increased OFC activity associated with lever-pressing but decreased OFC activity during outcome-related epochs. Hence, alcohol dependence induces a long-lasting disruption to OFC function such that activity associated with actions is enhanced, but OFC activity in relation to outcomes is diminished. This has important implications for hypotheses regarding compulsive and habitual phenotypes observed in addiction.

scholarly journals Acute ethanol effects on neural encoding of reward size and delay in the nucleus accumbens

2016 ◽  
Vol 116 (3) ◽  
pp. 1175-1188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea L. Gutman ◽  
Sharif A. Taha
Keyword(s):  
Nucleus Accumbens ◽  
Lever Press ◽  
Central Element ◽  
Ethanol Administration ◽  
Operant Response ◽  
Neural Firing ◽  
Neural Encoding ◽  
Acute Ethanol ◽  
Lever Pressing

Acute ethanol administration can cause impulsivity, resulting in increased preference for immediately available rewards over delayed but more valuable alternatives. The manner in which reward size and delay are represented in neural firing is not fully understood, and very little is known about ethanol effects on this encoding. To address this issue, we used in vivo electrophysiology to characterize neural firing in the core of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) in rats responding for rewards that varied in size or delay after vehicle or ethanol administration. The NAcc is a central element in the circuit that governs decision-making and importantly, promotes choice of delayed rewards. We found that NAcc firing in response to reward-predictive cues encoded anticipated reward value after vehicle administration, but ethanol administration disrupted this encoding, resulting in a loss of discrimination between immediate and delayed rewards in cue-evoked neural responses. In addition, NAcc firing occurring at the time of the operant response (lever pressing) was inversely correlated with behavioral response latency, such that increased firing rates were associated with decreased latencies to lever press. Ethanol administration selectively attenuated this lever press-evoked firing when delayed but not immediate rewards were expected. These effects on neural firing were accompanied by increased behavioral latencies to respond for delayed rewards. Our results suggest that ethanol effects on NAcc cue- and lever press-evoked encoding may contribute to ethanol-induced impulsivity.

scholarly journals A thalamocortical circuit for updating action-outcome associations

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Fresno ◽  
Shauna L Parkes ◽  
Angélique Faugère ◽  
Etienne Coutureau ◽  
Mathieu Wolff
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Instrumental Performance ◽  
Adaptive Responding ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Adaptive Decision Making ◽  
Cardinal Feature ◽  
Outcome Devaluation

The ability to flexibly use knowledge is one cardinal feature of goal-directed behaviors. We recently showed that thalamocortical and corticothalamic pathways connecting the medial prefrontal cortex and the mediodorsal thalamus (MD) contribute to adaptive decision-making (Alcaraz et al., 2018). In this study, we examined the impact of disconnecting the MD from its other main cortical target, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in a task assessing outcome devaluation after initial instrumental training and after reversal of action-outcome contingencies. Crossed MD and OFC lesions did not impair instrumental performance. Using the same approach, we found however that disconnecting the OFC from its other main thalamic afferent, the submedius nucleus, produced a specific impairment in adaptive responding following action-outcome reversal. Altogether, this suggests that multiple thalamocortical circuits may act synergistically to achieve behaviorally relevant functions.

scholarly journals Mechanism for differential recruitment of orbitostriatal transmission during outcomes and actions in alcohol dependence

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Renteria ◽  
Christian Cazares ◽  
Emily T. Baltz ◽  
Drew C. Schreiner ◽  
Ege A. Yalcinbas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Alcohol Dependence ◽  
Dorsal Striatum ◽  
Psychiatric Disease ◽  
Projection Neurons ◽  
Orbital Frontal Cortex ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Reduced Activity

AbstractPsychiatric disease often produces symptoms that have divergent effects on neural activity. For example, in drug dependence, dysfunctional value-based decision-making and compulsive-like actions have been linked to hypo- and hyper-activity of orbital frontal cortex (OFC)-basal ganglia circuits, respectively, however, the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Here we show that alcohol dependence enhanced activity in OFC terminals in dorsal striatum (OFC-DS) associated with actions, but reduced activity of the same terminals during periods of outcome retrieval, corresponding with a loss of outcome control over decision-making. Disrupted OFC-DS terminal activity was due to a dysfunction of dopamine-type 1 receptors on spiny projection neurons (D1R SPNs) that resulted in increased retrograde endocannabinoid (eCB) signaling at OFC-D1R SPN synapses reducing OFC-DS transmission. Blocking CB1 receptors restored OFC-DS activity in vivo and rescued outcome-based control over decision-making. These findings demonstrate a circuit-, synapse-, and computation specific mechanism gating OFC activity following the induction of alcohol dependence.

scholarly journals Chemogenetic modulation and single-photon calcium imaging in anterior cingulate cortex reveal a mechanism for effort-based decisions

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan E. Hart ◽  
Garrett J. Blair ◽  
Thomas J. O’Dell ◽  
Hugh T. Blair ◽  
Alicia Izquierdo
Keyword(s):  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Calcium Imaging ◽  
Lever Press ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Stable Population ◽  
Choice Condition ◽  
Population Code ◽  
Lever Pressing

ABSTRACTThe anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is implicated in effort exertion and choices based on effort cost, but it is still unclear how it mediates this cost-benefit evaluation. Here, male rats were trained to exert effort for a high-value reward (sucrose pellets) in a progressive ratio lever pressing task. Trained rats were then tested in two conditions: a no-choice condition where lever pressing for sucrose was the only available food option, and a choice condition where a low-value reward (lab chow) was freely available as an alternative to pressing for sucrose. Disruption of ACC—via either chemogenetic inhibition or excitation—reduced lever pressing in the choice, but not in the no-choice, condition. We next looked for value coding cells in ACC during effortful behavior and reward consumption phases during choice and no-choice conditions. For this, we utilized in vivo miniaturized fluorescence microscopy to reliably track responses of the same cells and compare how ACC neurons respond during the same effortful behavior where there was a choice versus when there was no-choice. We found that lever-press and sucrose-evoked responses were significantly weaker during choice compared to no-choice sessions, which may have rendered them more susceptible to chemogenetic disruption. Taken together, findings from our interference experiments and neural recordings suggest that a mechanism by which ACC mediates effortful decisions is in the discrimination of the utility of available options. ACC regulates these choices by providing a stable population code for the relative value of different options.Significance StatementThe anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is implicated in effort-based decision making. Here, we used chemogenetics and in vivo calcium imaging to explore its mechanism. Rats were trained to lever press for a high-value reward and tested in two conditions: a no-choice condition where lever pressing for the high-value reward was the only option, and a choice condition where a low-value reward was also available. Inhibition or excitation of ACC reduced effort toward the high value option, but only in the choice condition. Neural responses in ACC were weaker in the choice compared to the no-choice condition. A mechanism by which ACC regulates effortful decisions is in providing a stable population code for the discrimination of the utility of available options.

P.3.015 The determining factors of orbitofrontal cortex associated decision-making skills in alcohol dependence

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. S70-S71
Author(s):  
B. Andó ◽  
A. Szkaliczki ◽  
E. Kurgyis ◽  
A. Fehér ◽  
A. Juhász ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Alcohol Dependence ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Determining Factors

Intracellular Features Predicted by Extracellular Recordings in the Hippocampus In Vivo

2000 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 390-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darrell A. Henze ◽  
Zsolt Borhegyi ◽  
Jozsef Csicsvari ◽  
Akira Mamiya ◽  
Kenneth D. Harris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Extracellular Recordings

On the Origin of the Extracellular Action Potential Waveform: A Modeling Study

2006 ◽  
Vol 95 (5) ◽  
pp. 3113-3128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Gold ◽  
Darrell A. Henze ◽  
Christof Koch ◽  
György Buzsáki
Keyword(s):  
Action Potential ◽  
Pyramidal Neurons ◽  
Ionic Currents ◽  
Dendritic Morphology ◽  
Electrode Position ◽  
Unit Recording ◽  
Extracellular Recordings ◽  
Ca1 Pyramidal Neurons ◽  
Varied Composition

Although extracellular unit recording is typically used for the detection of spike occurrences, it also has the theoretical ability to report about what are typically considered intracellular features of the action potential. We address this theoretical ability by developing a model system that captures features of experimentally recorded simultaneous intracellular and extracellular recordings of CA1 pyramidal neurons. We use the line source approximation method of Holt and Koch to model the extracellular action potential (EAP) voltage resulting from the spiking activity of individual neurons. We compare the simultaneous intracellular and extracellular recordings of CA1 pyramidal neurons recorded in vivo with model predictions for the same cells reconstructed and simulated with compartmental models. The model accurately reproduces both the waveform and the amplitude of the EAPs, although it was difficult to achieve simultaneous good matches on both the intracellular and extracellular waveforms. This suggests that accounting for the EAP waveform provides a considerable constraint on the overall model. The developed model explains how and why the waveform varies with electrode position relative to the recorded cell. Interestingly, each cell's dendritic morphology had very little impact on the EAP waveform. The model also demonstrates that the varied composition of ionic currents in different cells is reflected in the features of the EAP.

scholarly journals Corticosterone and decision-making in male Wistar rats: the effect of corticosterone application in the infralimbic and orbitofrontal cortex

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Koot ◽  
Magdalini Koukou ◽  
Annemarie Baars ◽  
Peter Hesseling ◽  
José van ’t Klooster ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Wistar Rats ◽  
Male Wistar Rats
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