Cocaine-induced decision-making deficits are mediated by miscoding in basolateral amygdala.
Addicts and drug-experienced animals have decision-making deficits in reversal-learning tasks and more complex 'gambling' variants. Here we show evidence that these deficits are mediated by persistent encoding of outdated associative information in the basolateral amygdala. Cue-selective neurons in the basolateral amygdala, recorded in cocaine-treated rats, failed to change cue preference during reversal learning. Further, the presence of these neurons was critical to the expression of the reversal-learning deficit in the cocaine-treated rats.
Stalnaker
Thomas A
TA
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 20 Penn St., HSF-2 S251, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA. tstal002@umaryland.edu
Roesch
Matthew R
MR
Franz
Theresa M
TM
Calu
Donna J
DJ
Singh
Teghpal
T
Schoenbaum
Geoffrey
G
D000200:Action Potentials / Q000187:drug effects; D000679:Amygdala / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects*; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003042:Cocaine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003463:Cues; D003657:Decision Making / Q000187:drug effects*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D018765:Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists / Q000008:administration & dosage; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects; D016202:N-Methylaspartate / Q000008:administration & dosage; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects; D009812:Odorants; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans
D018765:Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors; D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists; D016202:N-Methylaspartate; D003042:Cocaine