title: Role of the anterior cingulate cortex in the control over behavior by Pavlovian conditioned stimuli in rats.
abstract: To investigate the contribution of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) to stimulus-reward learning, rats with lesions of peri- and postgenual ACC were tested on a variety of Pavlovian conditioning tasks. Lesioned rats learned to approach a food alcove during a stimulus predicting food, and responded normally for conditioned reinforcement. They also exhibited normal conditioned freezing and Pavlovian-instrumental transfer, yet were impaired at autoshaping. To resolve this apparent discrepancy, a further task was developed in which approach to the food alcove was under the control of 2 stimuli, only 1 of which was followed by reward. Lesioned rats were impaired, approaching during both stimuli. It is suggested that the ACC is not critical for stimulus-reward learning per se, but is required to discriminate multiple stimuli on the basis of their association with reward.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom. Rudolf.Cardinal@pobox.com
authors.forename: Rudolf N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Cardinal
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Parkinson
authors.forename: Hosnieh Djafari
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Marbini
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Toner
authors.forename: Timothy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Bussey
authors.forename: Trevor W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Robbins
authors.forename: Barry J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Everitt
mesh_terms: D000661:Amphetamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012201:Reward
chemical_list: D000661:Amphetamine