Infralimbic prefrontal cortex interacts with nucleus accumbens shell to unmask expression of outcome-selective Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer
- 1Department of Psychiatry, Division of Molecular Psychiatry, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
- 2Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
- 3Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
- Corresponding author: jane.taylor{at}yale.edu
Abstract
Although several studies have examined the subcortical circuitry underlying Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT), the role of medial prefrontal cortex in this behavior is largely unknown. Elucidating the cortical contributions to PIT will be key for understanding how reward-paired cues control behavior in both adaptive and maladaptive context (i.e., addiction). Here we use bilateral lesions in a rat model to show that infralimbic prefrontal cortex (ilPFC) is necessary for appropriate expression of PIT. Further, we show that ilPFC mediates this effect via functional connectivity with nucleus accumbens shell (NAcS). Together, these data provide the first demonstration that a specific cortico-striatal circuit is necessary for cue-invigorated reward seeking during specific PIT.
Footnotes
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Article is online at http://www.learnmem.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/lm.038810.115.
- Received April 16, 2015.
- Accepted July 2, 2015.
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