title: What's better for me? Fundamental role for lateral habenula in promoting subjective decision biases.
abstract: The lateral habenula (LHb) is believed to convey an aversive or 'anti-reward' signal, but its contribution to reward-related action selection is unknown. We found that LHb inactivation abolished choice biases, making rats indifferent when choosing between rewards associated with different subjective costs and magnitudes, but not larger or smaller rewards of equal cost. Thus, instead of serving as an aversion center, the evolutionarily conserved LHb acts as a preference center that is integral for expressing subjective decision biases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Brain Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Colin M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Stopper
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Brain Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Stan B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Floresco
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001418:Baclofen / Q000494:pharmacology; D015982:Bias; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D007839:Functional Laterality; D018755:GABA Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D019262:Habenula / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009118:Muscimol / Q000494:pharmacology; D011337:Probability Learning; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D012201:Reward; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D018755:GABA Agonists; D009118:Muscimol; D001418:Baclofen