Cholinergic midbrain afferents modulate striatal circuits and shape encoding of action strategies

Daniel Dautan (), Icnelia Huerta-Ocampo, Nadine K. Gut, Miguel Valencia, Krishnakanth Kondabolu, Yuwoong Kim, Todor V. Gerdjikov and Juan Mena-Segovia ()
Additional contact information
Daniel Dautan: Rutgers University
Icnelia Huerta-Ocampo: Rutgers University
Nadine K. Gut: Rutgers University
Miguel Valencia: CIMA
Krishnakanth Kondabolu: Rutgers University
Yuwoong Kim: Rutgers University
Todor V. Gerdjikov: University of Leicester
Juan Mena-Segovia: Rutgers University

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: Abstract Assimilation of novel strategies into a consolidated action repertoire is a crucial function for behavioral adaptation and cognitive flexibility. Acetylcholine in the striatum plays a pivotal role in such adaptation, and its release has been causally associated with the activity of cholinergic interneurons. Here we show that the midbrain, a previously unknown source of acetylcholine in the striatum, is a major contributor to cholinergic transmission in the striatal complex. Neurons of the pedunculopontine and laterodorsal tegmental nuclei synapse with striatal cholinergic interneurons and give rise to excitatory responses. Furthermore, they produce uniform inhibition of spiny projection neurons. Inhibition of acetylcholine release from midbrain terminals in the striatum impairs the association of contingencies and the formation of habits in an instrumental task, and mimics the effects observed following inhibition of acetylcholine release from striatal cholinergic interneurons. These results suggest the existence of two hierarchically-organized modes of cholinergic transmission in the striatum, where cholinergic interneurons are modulated by cholinergic neurons of the midbrain.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15514-3 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-15514-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15514-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().