Medial Prefrontal Cortex to Medial Septum Pathway Activation Improves Cognitive Flexibility in Rats.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is necessary for cognitive flexibility and projects to medial septum (MS). MS activation improves strategy switching, a common measure of cognitive flexibility, likely via its ability to regulate midbrain dopamine (DA) neuron population activity. We hypothesized that the mPFC to MS pathway (mPFC-MS) may be the mechanism by which the MS regulates strategy switching and DA neuron population activity.

Methods

Male and female rats learned a complex discrimination strategy across 2 different training time points: a constant length (10 days) and a variable length that coincided with each rat meeting an acquisition-level performance threshold (males: 5.3 ± 0.3 days, females: 3.8 ± 0.3 days). We then chemogenetically activated or inhibi

SUBMITTER: Bortz DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10289142 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature