Medial prefrontal cortex lesions impair decision-making on a rodent gambling task: reversal by D1 receptor antagonist administration.
Decision-making is a complex cognitive process that is impaired in a number of psychiatric disorders. In the laboratory, decision-making is frequently assessed using "gambling" tasks that are designed to simulate real-life decisions in terms of uncertainty, reward and punishment. Here, we investigate whether lesions of the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) cause impairments in decision-making using a rodent gambling task (rGT). In this task, rats have to decide between 1 of 4 possible options: 2 options are considered "advantageous" and lead to greater net rewards (food pellets) than the other 2 "disadvantageous" options. Once rats attained stable levels of performance on the rGT they underwent sham or excitoxic lesions of the medial PFC and were allowed to recover for 1 week. Following recovery, rats were retrained for 5 days and then the effects of a dopamine D1-like receptor antagonist (SCH23390) or a D2-like receptor antagonist (haloperidol) on performance were assessed. Lesioned rats exhibited impaired decision-making: they made fewer advantageous choices and chose the most optimal choice less frequently than did sham-operated rats. Administration of SCH23390 (0.03 mg/kg), but not haloperidol (0.015-0.03 mg/kg) attenuated the lesion-induced decision-making deficit. These results indicate that the medial PFC is important for decision-making and that excessive signaling at D1 receptors may contribute to decision-making impairments.
Department of Neuroscience, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH 44074, United States. tpaine@oberlin.edu
Tracie A
TA
Paine
Samuel K
SK
Asinof
Geoffrey W
GW
Diehl
Anna
A
Frackman
Joseph
J
Leffler
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D001552:Benzazepines / Q000008:administration & dosage; D003657:Decision Making / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D018492:Dopamine Antagonists / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D065127:Dopamine D2 Receptor Antagonists; D005715:Gambling / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D006220:Haloperidol / Q000008:administration & dosage; D008297:Male; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D017447:Receptors, Dopamine D1 / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*
D001552:Benzazepines; D018492:Dopamine Antagonists; D065127:Dopamine D2 Receptor Antagonists; D017447:Receptors, Dopamine D1; C534628:SCH 23390; D006220:Haloperidol