title: Goal-directed responding is sensitive to lesions to the prelimbic cortex or basolateral nucleus of the amygdala but not to their disconnection.
abstract: The current view of instrumental conditioning indicates that performance in the early stage of training is maintained by a representation of the outcome, as indexed by its sensitivity to changes in the value of the reward. In the present study, the authors tested the effects of a disconnection of the prelimbic cortex (PL) and the basolateral nucleus of the amygdale (BLA), using an asymmetric lesion procedure, to determine whether these structures interact sequentially as part of a corticolimbic system. In marked contrast to the effects of bilateral lesions of the PL or the BLA, which both altered rats' sensitivity to outcome devaluation, the disconnection of these 2 brain areas was without an effect on outcome devaluation. These results demonstrate that the PL and the BLA mediate different aspects of outcome representation in goal-directed responding.
authors.affiliation: CNRS, Talence, France. e.coutureau@cnic.u-bordeaux1.fr
authors.forename: Etienne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Coutureau
authors.forename: Alain R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Marchand
authors.forename: Georges
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Di Scala