scholarly journals Neural correlate of relief in the anterior cingulate cortex and ventral tegmental area

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas W. Elston ◽  
David K. Bilkey
Keyword(s):  
Ventral Tegmental Area ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Goal Pursuit ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Adaptive Behaviour ◽  
Neural Correlate ◽  
Physical Effort ◽  
Ventral Tegmental

AbstractInformation gained during goal pursuit motivates adaptive behaviour. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) supports adaptive behaviour, but how ACC signals are translated into motivational signals remains unclear. Rats implanted in the ACC and ventral tegmental area (VTA), a dopaminergic brain area implicated in motivation, were trained to run laps around a rectangular track for a fixed reward, where each lap varied in physical effort (a 30cm climbable barrier). Partial directed coherence analysis of local field potentials revealed that ACC theta (4-12 Hz) activity increased as rats entered the barrier-containing region of the maze on trials when the barrier was absent, and predicted similar changes in VTA theta. This did not occur on effortful, barrier-present trials. These data suggest that ACC provides a top-down modulating signal which can influence the motivation with which to pursue a reward, and which may be, in our task, a neural correlate of relief.

Implication of dopaminergic projection from the ventral tegmental area to the anterior cingulate cortex in μ-opioid-induced place preference

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 434-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minoru Narita ◽  
Yuki Matsushima ◽  
Keiichi Niikura ◽  
Michiko Narita ◽  
Shigemi Takagi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ventral Tegmental Area ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Place Preference ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Ventral Tegmental

scholarly journals Increased activation of the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex to citalopram challenge in migraine: an fMRI study

BMC Neurology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Edit Edes ◽  
Shane McKie ◽  
Edina Szabo ◽  
Gyongyi Kokonyei ◽  
Dorottya Pap ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Region Of Interest ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Stress Sensitivity ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Acute Increase ◽  
The Right

Abstract Background The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is a key structure of the pain processing network. Several structural and functional alterations of this brain area have been found in migraine. In addition, altered serotonergic neurotransmission has been repeatedly implicated in the pathophysiology of migraine, although the exact mechanism is not known. Thus, our aim was to investigate the relationship between acute increase of brain serotonin (5-HT) level and the activation changes of the ACC using pharmacological challenge MRI (phMRI) in migraine patients and healthy controls. Methods Twenty-seven pain-free healthy controls and six migraine without aura patients participated in the study. All participant attended to two phMRI sessions during which intravenous citalopram, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), or placebo (normal saline) was administered. We used region of interest analysis of ACC to compere the citalopram evoked activation changes of this area between patients and healthy participants. Results Significant difference in ACC activation was found between control and patient groups in the right pregenual ACC (pgACC) during and after citalopram infusion compared to placebo. The extracted time-series showed that pgACC activation increased in migraine patients compared to controls, especially in the first 8–10 min of citalopram infusion. Conclusions Our results demonstrate that a small increase in 5-HT levels can lead to increased phMRI signal in the pregenual part of the ACC that is involved in processing emotional aspects of pain. This increased sensitivity of the pgACC to increased 5-HT in migraine may contribute to recurring headache attacks and increased stress-sensitivity in migraine.

scholarly journals Regional activity in the rat anterior cingulate cortex and insula during persistence and quitting in a physical-effort task

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blake S. Porter ◽  
Kunling Li ◽  
Kristin L. Hillman
Keyword(s):  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Internal State ◽  
Field Potential ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Weight Lifting ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Male Rats ◽  
Physical Effort ◽  
Internal States

AbstractAs animals carry out behaviors, particularly costly ones, they must constantly assess whether or not to persist in the behavior or quit. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has been shown to assess the value of behaviors and to be especially sensitive to physical effort costs. Complimentary to these functions, the insula is thought to represent the internal state of the animal including factors such as hunger, thirst, and fatigue. Utilizing a novel weight lifting task for rats, we characterized the local field potential (LFP) activity of the ACC and anterior insula (AI) during effort expenditure. In the task male rats are challenged to work for sucrose reward, which costs progressively more effort over time to obtain. Rats are able to quit the task at any point. We found modest shifts in LFP theta (7-9 Hz) activity as the task got progressively more difficult in terms of absolute effort expenditure. However, when the LFP data were analyzed based on the rat’s relative progress towards quitting the task, or performance state, substantial shifts in LFP power in the theta and gamma (55-100 Hz) frequency bands were observed in ACC and AI. Both ACC and AI theta power decreased as the rats got closer to quitting, while ACC and AI gamma power increased. Furthermore, coherency between ACC and AI in the delta (2-4 Hz) range shifted alongside the rat’s performance state. Overall we show that ACC and AI LFP activity changes correlate to the rats’ relative performance state in an effort-based task.Significance StatementAnimals need to assess whether or not a behavior is worth pursuing based on their internal states (e.g., hunger, fatigue) and the costs and benefits of the behavior. However, internal states often change as behaviors are carried out, such as becoming fatigued, necessitating constant reassessment as to whether to continue the behavior or quit. We characterized brain activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and insula, brain regions involved in cost-benefit decision making and internal state representations, respectively, as rats carried out a challenging physical-effort task. Both brain regions showed significant shifts in activity as the rats approached their quitting point. Our study provides one of the first characterizations of neural activity as an animal decides to quit an effortful task.

scholarly journals Inactivation of the subcallosal anterior cingulate cortex Area 25 increases reward-related behaviour and motivation in the common marmoset

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rana Banai Tizkar ◽  
Laith Alexander ◽  
Philip L.R. Gaskin ◽  
Christian Wood ◽  
Angela McCaskill Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Preference Test ◽  
Cardiovascular Responses ◽  
Progressive Ratio ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Common Marmoset ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Cortex Area

Depression consists of a heterogenous set of symptoms such as low mood and blunted emotion known as anhedonia. A brain area extensively reported to be involved in depression is the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex area 25, which seems to be overactive in depression. Recently it has been shown that overactivation of area 25 in marmosets led to anticipatory and motivational anhedonia as measured by blunted cardiovascular responses and behavioural arousal in an appetitive Pavlovian task, and reduced willingness to work in a Progressive Ratio task respectively. In this study the role of area 25 in motivation was further investigated by inactivating this region by infusing GABA A/B agonists in cannulated marmosets on the progressive ratio task. We show that inactivation of area 25 increased total responses. However, there was also an increase in licking behaviour outside of reward delivery. A follow-up sucrose preference test showed that inactivating this brain area also led to an increase in sucrose consumption. Overall the findings indicate that area 25 inactivation increases motivation as measured by the increased breakpoint, but also promotes a consummatory behaviour. Dissecting the network related to these changes in both motivation and consummatory behaviour will be key to understanding the role of the subgenual cingulate cortex in mood disorders. We hypothesise that whilst the increased breakpoint may be related to subgenual interactions with the nucleus accumbens, increased consummatory licking may be related instead to interactions with the hypothalamus.

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