Elsevier

Neuroscience

Volume 142, Issue 1, 29 September 2006, Pages 1-20
Neuroscience

Review
Interactions among the medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and midline thalamus in emotional and cognitive processing in the rat

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2006.06.027Get rights and content

Abstract

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) participates in several higher order functions including selective attention, visceromotor control, decision making and goal-directed behaviors. We discuss the role of the infralimbic cortex (IL) in visceromotor control and the prelimbic cortex (PL) in cognition and their interactions in goal-directed behaviors in the rat. The PL strongly interconnects with a relatively small group of structures that, like PL, subserve cognition, and together have been designated the ‘PL circuit.’ These structures primarily include the hippocampus, insular cortex, nucleus accumbens, basolateral nucleus of the amygdala, the mediodorsal and reuniens nuclei of the thalamus and the ventral tegmental area of the midbrain. Lesions of each of these structures, like those of PL, produce deficits in delayed response tasks and memory. The PL (and ventral anterior cingulate cortex) (AC) of rats is ideally positioned to integrate current and past information, including its affective qualities, and act on it through its projections to the ventral striatum/ventral pallidum. We further discuss the role of nucleus reuniens of thalamus as a major interface between the mPFC and the hippocampus, and as a prominent source of afferent limbic information to the mPFC and hippocampus. We suggest that the IL of rats is functionally homologous to the orbitomedial cortex of primates and the prelimbic (and ventral AC) cortex to the lateral/dorsolateral cortex of primates, and that the IL/PL complex of rats exerts significant control over emotional and cognitive aspects of goal-directed behavior.

Section snippets

Functional and anatomical differences between the dorsal and ventral mPFC of rats

The mPFC of rats consists of four main divisions which from dorsal to ventral are the medial agranular (AGm) (or medial precentral), the AC (dorsal and ventral divisions), the PL and the IL (Berendse and Groenewegen 1991, Ray and Price 1992, Price 1995, Swanson 1998, Öngür and Price 2000, Heidbreder and Groenewegen 2003). The various subdivisions of the mPFC appear to serve separate and distinct functions. For instance, dorsal regions of mPFC (AGm and AC) have been linked to various motor

Conclusions

In summary, the IL projects to autonomic/visceral-related sites, supporting its role in visceromotor activity, whereas PL/ventral AC primarily projects to limbic-related sites that reportedly affect cognition (Vertes 2004, Gabbott et al 2005). It is obviously the case, however, that complex goal-directed behaviors entail an integration of visceral and cognitive elements. It seems likely that this integration may largely occur at the level of mPFC involving interactions between IL and PL. In the

Acknowledgments

Grant sponsor; NIMH; grant numbers: MH63519 and MH01476.

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