Elsevier

Neuroscience

Volume 146, Issue 4, 8 June 2007, Pages 1484-1494
Neuroscience

Behavioural neuroscience
The role of different subregions of the basolateral amygdala in cue-induced reinstatement and extinction of food-seeking behavior

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2007.03.025Get rights and content

Abtract

Reinstatement of previously extinguished instrumental responding for drug-related cues has been used as an animal model for relapse of drug abuse, and is disrupted by inactivation of the basolateral amygdala (BLA). However, the role that the BLA plays in reinstatement induced by cues associated with natural rewards is unclear. The present study assessed the effects of inactivation of different regions of the BLA in cue-induced reinstatement of food-seeking behavior and in the extinction of instrumental responding for food. In experiment 1, rats acquired a lever pressing response for food reward paired with a light/tone conditioned stimulus (CS). They were then subjected to extinction training, where both food and the CS were withheld. Reinstatement of extinguished responding was measured during response-contingent presentations of the CS alone. Following saline infusions into the caudal or rostral BLA, rats displayed a significant increase in lever pressing during reinstatement sessions. Inactivation of these subregions with bupivacaine did not attenuate responding for the CS in the absence of food delivery. In fact, inactivation of the caudal BLA potentiated responding relative to vehicle treatments. Analysis of within-session responding revealed that caudal BLA inactivation retarded extinction of lever pressing in response to the CS. In experiment 2, inactivation of the caudal BLA on the first or second day of extinction training significantly retarded the acquisition of extinction learning on the following day. These data indicate that that the caudal BLA may play a specific role in the extinction of appetitive conditioned responses, by monitoring changes in the reinforcing value of pavlovian conditioned stimuli linked to action–outcome associations once these associations have been formed. Moreover, these findings support a growing body of evidence indicating that separate neural circuits incorporating the BLA may play different roles in mediating reinstatement of reward-seeking behaviors induced by either drug or food related stimuli.

Section snippets

Animals

Male Long-Evans rats (Charles River Laboratories, Montreal, QC, Canada) weighing 275–350 g were used. Upon initial arrival into the colony, rats were group housed in plastic cages in a temperature-controlled colony room on a 12-h light/dark schedule, with ad libitum access to water for the duration of the experiment. All testing was in accordance of the Canadian Council of Animal Care and the Animal Care Committee of the University of British Columbia. All efforts were made to minimize the

Discussion

The primary objective of the present study was to determine the role of the BLA in reinstatement for food-related cues, and to compare these results with previous studies using drug-related cues (McLaughlin and See, 2003). In experiment 1, inactivation of the caudal BLA did not attenuate responding for a CS associated with food reward, and in fact enhanced responding for the CS relative to saline treatments. This indicates that this region of the BLA facilitates extinction of instrumental

Conclusion

In conclusion, the present data indicate that different regions of the BLA appear to be play distinct roles in cue-induced reinstatement induced by stimuli associated with natural or drug rewards. The rostral aspects of the BLA appear to mediate reinstatement of responding for conditioned reinforcers associated with cocaine (Kantak et al 2002, McLaughlin and See 2003), whereas the caudal regions facilitate extinction of instrumental responding for a CS associated with food or drug rewards.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by an operating grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to S.B.F. R.J.M. is a recipient of a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR) Junior Graduate Studentship Award. S.B.F. is a CIHR New Investigator and an MSFHR Scholar. We are grateful to Dr. Catharine Winstanley for her useful comments on our manuscript.

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