The Periaqueductal Gray Selectively Supports Reversal Learning During a Flexible Discrimination Task in Mice.

ABSTRACT: Flexible, goal-directed behavior depends on the ability to update value representations in response to changing contingencies. This ability depends on distributed brain networks, calling for use of whole-brain imaging. Widely used in human research, the challenge of functional fMRI in rodents has only recently been properly addressed, opening the door to whole-brain imaging of behaving mice. Here, we used functional MRI in mice performing a go/no-go odor discrimination task, we compared neural activity during initial cue-reward learning (acquisition) and subsequent contingency reversal. Trial-by-trial estimates of state-action values from a model-free reinforcement-learning algorithm allowed us to dissociate acquisition from reversal-related signals, revealing that ventral striatal respons

SUBMITTER: Lichtman D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12871592 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature