Distracting stimuli evoke ventral tegmental area responses in rats during ongoing saccharin consumption.

ABSTRACT: Disruptions in attention, salience and increased distractibility are implicated in multiple psychiatric conditions. The ventral tegmental area (VTA) is a potential site for converging information about external stimuli and internal states to be integrated and guide adaptive behaviours. Given the dual role of dopamine signals in both driving ongoing behaviours (e.g., feeding) and monitoring salient environmental stimuli, understanding the interaction between these functions is crucial. Here, we investigate VTA neuronal activity during distraction from ongoing feeding. We developed a task to assess distraction exploiting self-paced licking in rats. Rats trained to lick for saccharin were given a distraction test, in which three consecutive licks within 1 s triggered a random distractor (e.g.

SUBMITTER: Peters KZ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8603935 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature