scholarly journals Dopamine D1/D2 Receptor Activity in the Nucleus Accumbens Core But Not in the Nucleus Accumbens Shell and Orbitofrontal Cortex Modulates Risk-Based Decision Making

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. pyv043 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina Mai ◽  
Susanne Sommer ◽  
Wolfgang Hauber
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Nucleus Accumbens ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
D2 Receptor ◽  
Receptor Activity ◽  
Nucleus Accumbens Shell ◽  
Nucleus Accumbens Core ◽  
Accumbens Core

Top-down control of the medial orbitofrontal cortex to nucleus accumbens core pathway in decisional impulsivity

2019 ◽  
Vol 224 (7) ◽  
pp. 2437-2452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiyan Wang ◽  
Lupeng Yue ◽  
Cailian Cui ◽  
Shuli Liu ◽  
Xuewei Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nucleus Accumbens ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Nucleus Accumbens Core ◽  
Decisional Impulsivity ◽  
Accumbens Core

scholarly journals Insular Cortex Projections to Nucleus Accumbens Core Mediate Social Approach to Stressed Juvenile Rats

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morgan M. Rogers-Carter ◽  
Anthony Djerdjaj ◽  
Katherine B. Gribbons ◽  
Juan A. Varela ◽  
John P. Christianson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Nucleus Accumbens ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Insular Cortex ◽  
Male Rat ◽  
Nucleus Accumbens Core ◽  
Social Approach ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Social Decision Making ◽  
Accumbens Core

Social interactions are shaped by features of the interactants including age, emotion, sex and familiarity. Age-specific responses to social affect are evident when an adult male rat is presented with a pair of unfamiliar male conspecifics, one of which is stressed via 2 footshocks and the other naïve to treatment. Adult test rats prefer to interact with stressed juvenile (PN30) conspecifics, but avoid stressed adult (PN50) conspecifics. This pattern depends upon the insular cortex (IC) which is anatomically connected to the nucleus accumbens core (NAc). The goal of this work was to test the necessity of IC projections to NAc during social affective behavior. Here, bilateral pharmacological inhibition of the NAc with tetrodotoxin (1µM; 0.5ul/side) abolished the preference for stressed PN30, but did not alter interactions with PN50 conspecifics. Using a combination of retrograding tracing and c-Fos immunohistochemistry, we report that social interactions with stressed PN30 conspecifics elicit greater Fos immunoreactivity in IC → NAc neurons than interactions with naïve PN30 conspecifics. Chemogenetic stimulation of IC terminals in the NAc increased social exploration with juvenile, but not adult, conspecifics, while chemogenetic inhibition of this tract blocked the preference to investigate stressed PN30 conspecifics, which expands upon our previous finding that optogenetic inhibition of IC projection neurons mediated approach and avoidance. These new findings suggest that outputs of IC to the NAc modulate social approach, which provides new insight to the neural circuitry underlying social decision-making.Significance StatementSocial decision-making underlies an animal’s behavioral response to others in a range of social contexts. Previous findings indicate the insular cortex (IC) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc) play important roles in a range of social behaviors, and human neuroimaging implicates both IC and NAc in autism and other psychiatric disorders characterized by aberrant social cognition. To test whether IC projections to the NAc are involved in social decision making, circuit-specific chemogenetic manipulations demonstrated that the IC → NAc pathway mediates social approach toward distressed juvenile, but not adult, conspecifics. This finding is the first to implicate this circuit in rodent socioemotional behaviors and may be a neuroanatomical substrate for integration of emotion with social reward.

The role of dopamine D2 receptor-expressing neurons in the nucleus accumbens core in operant matching

2010 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. e289-e290
Author(s):  
Nobuyuki Kai ◽  
Ryoji Fukabori ◽  
Yuji Tsutsui ◽  
Motokazu Uchigashima ◽  
Masahiko Watanebe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nucleus Accumbens ◽  
Dopamine D2 Receptor ◽  
D2 Receptor ◽  
Nucleus Accumbens Core ◽  
Dopamine D2 ◽  
Accumbens Core

scholarly journals Infection of male rats with Toxoplasma gondii results in enhanced delay aversion and neural changes in the nucleus accumbens core

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1808) ◽  
pp. 20150042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Tan ◽  
Linda Jing Ting Soh ◽  
Lee Wei Lim ◽  
Tan Chia Wei Daniel ◽  
Xiaodong Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nucleus Accumbens ◽  
Toxoplasma Gondii ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Behavioural Change ◽  
Male Rats ◽  
Spine Density ◽  
Delay Aversion ◽  
Nucleus Accumbens Shell ◽  
Nucleus Accumbens Core ◽  
Accumbens Core

Rats infected with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii exhibit reduced avoidance of predator odours. This behavioural change is likely to increase transmission of the parasite from rats to cats. Here, we show that infection with T. gondii increases the propensity of the infected rats to make more impulsive choices, manifested as delay aversion in an intertemporal choice task. Concomitantly, T. gondii infection causes reduction in dopamine content and neuronal spine density of the nucleus accumbens core, but not of the nucleus accumbens shell. These results are consistent with a role of the nucleus accumbens dopaminergic system in mediation of choice impulsivity and goal-directed behaviours. Our observations suggest that T. gondii infection in rats causes a syndromic shift in related behavioural constructs of innate aversion and making foraging decisions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document