Chemogenetic Modulation and Single-Photon Calcium Imaging in Anterior Cingulate Cortex Reveal a Mechanism for Effort-Based Decisions

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience
Evan E HartAlicia Izquierdo

Abstract

The ACC is implicated in effort exertion and choices based on effort cost, but it is still unclear how it mediates this cost-benefit evaluation. Here, male rats were trained to exert effort for a high-value reward (sucrose pellets) in a progressive ratio lever-pressing task. Trained rats were then tested in two conditions: a no-choice condition where lever-pressing for sucrose was the only available food option, and a choice condition where a low-value reward (lab chow) was freely available as an alternative to pressing for sucrose. Disruption of ACC, via either chemogenetic inhibition or excitation, reduced lever-pressing in the choice, but not in the no-choice, condition. We next looked for value coding cells in ACC during effortful behavior and reward consumption phases during choice and no-choice conditions. For this, we used in vivo miniaturized fluorescence microscopy to reliably track responses of the same cells and compare how ACC neurons respond during the same effortful behavior where there was a choice versus when there was no-choice. We found that lever-press and sucrose-evoked responses were significantly weaker during choice compared with no-choice sessions, which may have rendered them more susceptible to chemoge...Continue Reading

Citations

Feb 17, 2021·Psychopharmacology·Emily L ErranteLeslie Matuszewich
Mar 16, 2021·Frontiers in Neuroscience·Carlos SilvaKristin L Hillman
Apr 27, 2021·Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience·Robert G MairBrett M Gibson
Jun 17, 2021·Journal of Neurophysiology·Blake S Porter, Kristin L Hillman

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
fluorescence microscopy
transfection

Software Mentioned

MATLAB
DAQ
Non
- Rigid Motion Correction ( NoRMCorre )
DREADD
CellReg
Open Computer Vision ( OpenCV )
SPSS
min1pipe
GNU Image Manipulation Program

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