Nucleus Accumbens Core Dopamine D2 Receptor-Expressing Neurons Control Reversal Learning but Not Set-Shifting in Behavioral Flexibility in Male Mice.

ABSTRACT: The ability to use environmental cues to flexibly guide responses is crucial for adaptive behavior and is thought to be controlled within a series of cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loops. Previous evidence has indicated that different prefrontal cortical regions control dissociable aspects of behavioral flexibility, with the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) necessary for the ability to shift attention to a novel strategy (set-shifting) and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) necessary for shifting attention between learned stimulus-outcome associations (reversal learning). The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a major downstream target of both the mPFC and the OFC; however, its role in controlling reversal learning and set-shifting abilities is still unclear. Here we investigated the contributi

SUBMITTER: Macpherson T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9275008 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature