scholarly journals Activation of Basolateral Amygdala to Nucleus Accumbens Projection Neurons Attenuates Chronic Corticosterone-Induced Behavioral Deficits in Male Mice

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Dieterich ◽  
Joseph Floeder ◽  
Karina Stech ◽  
Jay Lee ◽  
Prachi Srivastava ◽  
...  

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is critical for reward behaviors via a projection to the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Specifically, BLA-NAc projections are involved in reinforcement learning, reward-seeking, sustained instrumental responding, and risk behaviors. However, it remains unclear whether chronic stress interacts with BLA-NAc projection neurons to result in maladaptive behaviors. Here we take a chemogenetic, projection-specific approach to clarify how NAc-projecting BLA neurons affect avoidance, reward, and feeding behaviors in male mice. Then, we examine whether chemogenetic activation of NAc-projecting BLA neurons attenuates the maladaptive effects of chronic corticosterone (CORT) administration on these behaviors. CORT mimics the behavioral and neural effects of chronic stress exposure. We found a nuanced role of BLA-NAc neurons in mediating reward behaviors. Surprisingly, activation of BLA-NAc projections rescues CORT-induced deficits in the novelty suppressed feeding, a behavior typically associated with avoidance. Activation of BLA-NAc neurons also increases instrumental reward-seeking without affecting free-feeding in chronic CORT mice. Taken together, these data suggest that NAc-projecting BLA neurons are involved in chronic CORT-induced maladaptive reward and motivation behaviors.

2020 ◽  
Vol 87 (11) ◽  
pp. 954-966 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yao Wang ◽  
Zheng Liu ◽  
Li Cai ◽  
Rong Guo ◽  
Yan Dong ◽  
...  

Neuron ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 648-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederic Ambroggi ◽  
Akinori Ishikawa ◽  
Howard L. Fields ◽  
Saleem M. Nicola

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. eabf1913
Author(s):  
Takuma Kitanishi ◽  
Ryoko Umaba ◽  
Kenji Mizuseki

The dorsal hippocampus conveys various information associated with spatial navigation; however, how the information is distributed to multiple downstream areas remains unknown. We investigated this by identifying axonal projections using optogenetics during large-scale recordings from the rat subiculum, the major hippocampal output structure. Subicular neurons demonstrated a noise-resistant representation of place, speed, and trajectory, which was as accurate as or even more accurate than that of hippocampal CA1 neurons. Speed- and trajectory-dependent firings were most prominent in neurons projecting to the retrosplenial cortex and nucleus accumbens, respectively. Place-related firing was uniformly observed in neurons targeting the retrosplenial cortex, nucleus accumbens, anteroventral thalamus, and medial mammillary body. Theta oscillations and sharp-wave/ripples tightly controlled the firing of projection neurons in a target region–specific manner. In conclusion, the dorsal subiculum robustly routes diverse navigation-associated information to downstream areas.


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