title: Orbitofrontal lesions eliminate signalling of biological significance in cue-responsive ventral striatal neurons.
abstract: The ventral striatum has long been proposed as an integrator of biologically significant associative information to drive actions. Although inputs from the amygdala and hippocampus have been much studied, the role of prominent inputs from orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) are less well understood. Here, we recorded single-unit activity from ventral striatum core in rats with sham or ipsilateral neurotoxic lesions of lateral OFC, as they performed an odour-guided spatial choice task. Consistent with prior reports, we found that spiking activity recorded in sham rats during cue sampling was related to both reward magnitude and reward identity, with higher firing rates observed for cues that predicted more reward. Lesioned rats also showed differential activity to the cues, but this activity was unbiased towards larger rewards. These data support a role for OFC in shaping activity in the ventral striatum to represent the biological significance of associative information in the environment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland, School of Medicine, 20 Penn Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA.
authors.forename: Nisha K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Cooch
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, Cellular Neurobiology Research Branch, Behavioral Neurophysiology Research Section, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21224, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Stalnaker
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland, School of Medicine, 20 Penn Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA.
authors.forename: Heather M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Wied
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, Cellular Neurobiology Research Branch, Behavioral Neurophysiology Research Section, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21224, USA.
authors.forename: Sheena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bali-Chaudhary
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland, School of Medicine, 20 Penn Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA.
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: McDannald
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland, School of Medicine, 20 Penn Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA.
authors.forename: Tzu-Lan
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland, School of Medicine, 20 Penn Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA [2] National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, Cellular Neurobiology Research Branch, Behavioral Neurophysiology Research Section, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21224, USA [3] Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
authors.forename: Geoffrey
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schoenbaum
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D008297:Male; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000293:injuries* / Q000502:physiology; D011897:Random Allocation; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012201:Reward; D012903:Smell; D066328:Ventral Striatum / Q000378:metabolism*