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Putative dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area enhance information coding in the prefrontal cortex.

ABSTRACT: It has been proposed that neuronal populations in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) robustly encode task-relevant information through an interplay with the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Yet, the precise computation underlying such functional interaction remains elusive. Here, we conducted simultaneous recordings of single-unit activity in PFC and VTA of rats performing a GO/NoGO task. We found that mutual information between stimuli and neural activity increases in the PFC as soon as stimuli are presented. Notably, it is the activity of putative dopamine neurons in the VTA that contributes critically to enhance information coding in the PFC. The higher the activity of these VTA neurons, the better the conditioned stimuli are encoded in the PFC.

SUBMITTER: Mininni CJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6079091 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Putative dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area enhance information coding in the prefrontal cortex.

Mininni Camilo J CJ Caiafa César F CF Zanutto B Silvano BS Tseng Kuei Y KY Lew Sergio E SE

Scientific reports 20180806 1

It has been proposed that neuronal populations in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) robustly encode task-relevant information through an interplay with the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Yet, the precise computation underlying such functional interaction remains elusive. Here, we conducted simultaneous recordings of single-unit activity in PFC and VTA of rats performing a GO/NoGO task. We found that mutual information between stimuli and neural activity increases in the PFC as soon as stimuli are prese ...[more]

PMID: 30082818

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