Neural Activity in the Ventral Pallidum Encodes Variation in the Incentive Value of a Reward Cue.

ABSTRACT:

Unlabelled

There is considerable individual variation in the extent to which reward cues are attributed with incentive salience. For example, a food-predictive conditioned stimulus (CS; an illuminated lever) becomes attractive, eliciting approach toward it only in some rats ("sign trackers," STs), whereas others ("goal trackers," GTs) approach the food cup during the CS period. The purpose of this study was to determine how individual differences in Pavlovian approach responses are represented in neural firing patterns in the major output structure of the mesolimbic system, the ventral pallidum (VP). Single-unit in vivo electrophysiology was used to record neural activity in the caudal VP during the performance of ST and GT conditioned responses. All rats showed neural responses to

SUBMITTER: Ahrens AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4961780 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature