Medial septum activation improves strategy switching once strategies are well-learned via bidirectional regulation of dopamine neuron population activity.

ABSTRACT: Strategy switching is a form of cognitive flexibility that requires inhibiting a previously successful strategy and switching to a new strategy of a different categorical modality. It is dependent on dopamine (DA) receptor activation and release in ventral striatum and prefrontal cortex, two primary targets of ventral tegmental area (VTA) DA projections. Although the circuitry that underlies strategy switching early in learning has been studied, few studies have examined it after extended discrimination training. This may be important as DA activity and release patterns change across learning, with several studies demonstrating a critical role for substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) DA activity and release once behaviors are well-learned. We have demonstrated that medial septum (MS) activ

SUBMITTER: Bortz DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9556587 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature