A thalamocortical circuit for updating action-outcome associations

Abstract

The ability to flexibly use knowledge is one cardinal feature of goal-directed behaviors. We recently showed that thalamocortical and corticothalamic pathways connecting the medial prefrontal cortex and the mediodorsal thalamus (MD) contribute to adaptive decision-making (Alcaraz et al., 2018). In this study, we examined the impact of disconnecting the MD from its other main cortical target, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in a task assessing outcome devaluation after initial instrumental training and after reversal of action-outcome contingencies. Crossed MD and OFC lesions did not impair instrumental performance. Using the same approach, we found however that disconnecting the OFC from its other main thalamic afferent, the submedius nucleus, produced a specific impairment in adaptive responding following action-outcome reversal. Altogether, this suggests that multiple thalamocortical circuits may act synergistically to achieve behaviorally relevant functions.

Organisation of afferents along the anterior-posterior and medial-lateral axes of the rat orbitofrontal cortex

“…Most of the double-or triplelabelled cells we observed were present in the Sub and it has previously reported there are neurons in this region that simultaneously project to lateral and ventral OFC, potentially linking their functions under certain conditions (Kuramoto et al, 2017). While little is known about the function of this thalamic nucleus, recent studies have explored the functional significance of its connectivity with the OFC, revealing that an intact Sub is necessary for updating both stimulus-outcome (Alcaraz et al, 2015) and action-outcome associations (Fresno, Parkes, Faugère, Coutureau, & Wolff, 2019).…”

Variation of connectivity across exemplar sensory and associative thalamocortical loops in the mouse

“…Interactions between the thalamus and cortex are essential for sensory processing ( Lien and Scanziani, 2018 ; Bartlett, 2013 ), motor control ( Fresno et al, 2019 ; Guo et al, 2017 ), arousal ( Chen et al, 2015 ; Schiff, 2008 ) and multiple aspects of cognitive function ( Wimmer et al, 2015 ; Wolff and Vann, 2019 ; Jaramillo et al, 2019 ; Parnaudeau et al, 2018 ; Pergola et al, 2018 ; Rikhye et al, 2018a ; Saalmann and Kastner, 2011 ; Bolkan et al, 2017 ; Scott et al, 2020 ). How does this collection of forebrain nuclei contribute to the diversity of hypothesized functions?…”

“…A rapidly growing field of research into the role of the thalamus beyond sensory processing, into topics such as motor control and cognitive flexibility ( Wolff and Vann, 2019 ; Fresno et al, 2019 ; Rikhye et al, 2018a ), is highlighting the relevance of non-relay thalamocortical computations. For example, thalamocortical neurons in the ventromedial thalamus are engaged in maintaining preparatory motor activity in premotor cortex of the mouse ( Guo et al, 2017 ).…”

A Comparison of Neural Decoding Methods and Population Coding Across Thalamo-Cortical Head Direction Cells

“…Although a number of methods have been developed to assess the dynamics of thalamo-cortical HD signals (e.g., Rybakken et al, 2018;Viejo et al, 2018;Fresno et al, 2019), few studies have conducted a quantitative comparison of neural decoding. Statistical model-based approaches have generally been favored with respect to studying population activity of the HD cell system, however recent advances have stimulated new interest in using machine learning approaches for neural decoding.…”