Orbitofrontal lesions eliminate signalling of biological significance in cue-responsive ventral striatal neurons.

ABSTRACT: The ventral striatum has long been proposed as an integrator of biologically significant associative information to drive actions. Although inputs from the amygdala and hippocampus have been much studied, the role of prominent inputs from orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) are less well understood. Here, we recorded single-unit activity from ventral striatum core in rats with sham or ipsilateral neurotoxic lesions of lateral OFC, as they performed an odour-guided spatial choice task. Consistent with prior reports, we found that spiking activity recorded in sham rats during cue sampling was related to both reward magnitude and reward identity, with higher firing rates observed for cues that predicted more reward. Lesioned rats also showed differential activity to the cues, but this activity was unb

SUBMITTER: Cooch NK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4445428 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature