Temporal dynamics of nucleus accumbens neurons in male mice during reward seeking

Terra A. Schall, King-Lun Li, Xiguang Qi, Brian T. Lee, William J. Wright, Erin E. Alpaugh, Rachel J. Zhao, Jianwei Liu, Qize Li, Bo Zeng, Lirong Wang, Yanhua H. Huang, Oliver M. Schlüter, Eric J. Nestler, Edward H. Nieh and Yan Dong ()
Additional contact information
Terra A. Schall: University of Pittsburgh
King-Lun Li: University of Pittsburgh
Xiguang Qi: University of Pittsburgh
Brian T. Lee: Carnegie Mellon University
William J. Wright: University of Pittsburgh
Erin E. Alpaugh: University of Pittsburgh
Rachel J. Zhao: University of Pittsburgh
Jianwei Liu: University of Pittsburgh
Qize Li: University of Pittsburgh
Bo Zeng: University of Pittsburgh
Lirong Wang: University of Pittsburgh
Yanhua H. Huang: University of Pittsburgh
Oliver M. Schlüter: University of Pittsburgh
Eric J. Nestler: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Edward H. Nieh: University of Virginia
Yan Dong: University of Pittsburgh

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract The nucleus accumbens (NAc) regulates reward-motivated behavior, but the temporal dynamics of NAc neurons that enable “free-willed” animals to obtain rewards remain elusive. Here, we recorded Ca2+ activity from individual NAc neurons when mice performed self-paced lever-presses for sucrose. NAc neurons exhibited three temporally-sequenced clusters, defined by times at which they exhibited increased Ca2+ activity: approximately 0, −2.5 or −5 sec relative to the lever-pressing. Dopamine D1 receptor (D1)-expressing neurons and D2-neurons formed the majority of the −5-sec versus −2.5-sec clusters, respectively, while both neuronal subtypes were represented in the 0-sec cluster. We found that pre-press activity patterns of D1- or D2-neurons could predict subsequent lever-presses. Inhibiting D1-neurons at −5 sec or D2-neurons at −2.5 sec, but not at other timepoints, reduced sucrose-motivated lever-pressing. We propose that the time-specific activity of D1- and D2-neurons mediate key temporal features of the NAc through which reward motivation initiates reward-seeking behavior.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-53690-8 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:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-53690-8

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53690-8

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 ().