A functional topography within the cholinergic basal forebrain for encoding sensory cues and behavioral reinforcement outcomes.

ABSTRACT: Basal forebrain cholinergic neurons (BFCNs) project throughout the cortex to regulate arousal, stimulus salience, plasticity, and learning. Although often treated as a monolithic structure, the basal forebrain features distinct connectivity along its rostrocaudal axis that could impart regional differences in BFCN processing. Here, we performed simultaneous bulk calcium imaging from rostral and caudal BFCNs over a 1-month period of variable reinforcement learning in mice. BFCNs in both regions showed equivalently weak responses to unconditioned visual stimuli and anticipated rewards. Rostral BFCNs in the horizontal limb of the diagonal band were more responsive to reward omission, more accurately classified behavioral outcomes, and more closely tracked fluctuations in pupil-indexed global

SUBMITTER: Robert B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8654357 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature