Orbitofrontal lesions eliminate signalling of biological significance in cue-responsive ventral striatal neurons

Nisha K. Cooch, Thomas A. Stalnaker (), Heather M. Wied, Sheena Bali-Chaudhary, Michael A. McDannald, Tzu-Lan Liu and Geoffrey Schoenbaum ()
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Nisha K. Cooch: University of Maryland, School of Medicine
Thomas A. Stalnaker: National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, Cellular Neurobiology Research Branch, Behavioral Neurophysiology Research Section
Heather M. Wied: University of Maryland, School of Medicine
Sheena Bali-Chaudhary: National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, Cellular Neurobiology Research Branch, Behavioral Neurophysiology Research Section
Michael A. McDannald: University of Maryland, School of Medicine
Tzu-Lan Liu: University of Maryland, School of Medicine
Geoffrey Schoenbaum: University of Maryland, School of Medicine

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract The ventral striatum has long been proposed as an integrator of biologically significant associative information to drive actions. Although inputs from the amygdala and hippocampus have been much studied, the role of prominent inputs from orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) are less well understood. Here, we recorded single-unit activity from ventral striatum core in rats with sham or ipsilateral neurotoxic lesions of lateral OFC, as they performed an odour-guided spatial choice task. Consistent with prior reports, we found that spiking activity recorded in sham rats during cue sampling was related to both reward magnitude and reward identity, with higher firing rates observed for cues that predicted more reward. Lesioned rats also showed differential activity to the cues, but this activity was unbiased towards larger rewards. These data support a role for OFC in shaping activity in the ventral striatum to represent the biological significance of associative information in the environment.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8195

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