Prelimbic prefrontal cortical encoding of reward predictive cues

Spring, Mitchell G; Soni, Karan R; Wheeler, Daniel S.; Wheeler, Robert

doi:10.1002/syn.22202

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…For example, in female mice, reactivation of a PrL ensemble was most sensitive to identifying ensembles related to persistence in cue reactivity (operant responding) in a single context, while it was most sensitive to persistence of goal‐directed responding (head entries) in different contexts. This is consistent with studies using electrophysiological and calcium imaging methods, which have identified distinct PrL neurons that increase firing in response to a sucrose cue (Grant et al, 2021; Moorman & Aston‐Jones, 2015; Spring et al, 2021). PrL neurons that project to the nucleus accumbens are especially sensitive to sucrose cues (Otis et al, 2017), suggesting that this may be a population tagged in our study.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Comparison of prefrontal cortex sucrose seeking ensembles engaged in multiple seeking sessions: Context is key

Jessen

Bennett

Liu

et al. 2022

J of Neuroscience Research

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Encoding of memories, including those associated with prior drug or reward, is thought to take place within distinct populations of neurons, termed ensembles. Neuronal ensembles for drug‐ and reward‐seeking have been identified in regions of the medial prefrontal cortex, but much of our understanding of these ensembles is based on experiments that take place in a single reward‐associated environment and measure ensemble encoding over short durations of time. In contrast, reward seeking behavior is evident across different reward‐associated environments and persists over time. Using TetTag mice and Fos immunohistochemistry, we examined the relationship between persistent sucrose‐seeking and ensemble encoding in mice that undergo seeking sessions in the same or different sucrose self‐administration contexts 2 weeks apart. We found that prelimbic (PrL) and anterior cingulate cortex ensembles tagged in the first seeking session were highly sensitive to the context in which a second seeking session took place: reactivation of these ensembles was reduced in the same context but elevated in a distinct sucrose self‐administration context. Correlational analyses revealed that ensemble reactivation in the PrL was proportional to the persistence of sucrose seeking behavior across sessions in differing ways in female mice. In the same context, reactivation was proportional to the persistence of non‐reinforced operant responses, whereas in a distinct context, reactivation was proportional to the persistence of non‐reinforced head entries into the sucrose receptacle. This study underlines the importance of the medial prefrontal cortex importance in maintaining a reward‐seeking ensemble over time and identifies context‐dependent changes in behavioral correlates of ensemble reactivation.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Comparison of prefrontal cortex sucrose seeking ensembles engaged in multiple seeking sessions: Context is key

Jessen

Bennett

Liu

et al. 2022

J of Neuroscience Research

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“…It is well established that many behavioral functions are specifically regulated by distinct subregions of the PFC. For example, conditioned fear response or trauma (as evidenced in PTSD) is encoded in the ILA 36 , while cue or context-associated reward memory is encoded in PL 37,38 , and compulsive behavior (often associated with drug addiction) is associated with ORBm 39 . Thus, revealing the differential neuron subtype distribution in the different PFC subregions may help link the PFC subregion-specific functions to the various differentially distributed neuron subtypes.…”

Section: Distinct Neuron Subtypes Are Uniquely Enriched In Pfcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding prefrontal cortex functions by decoding its molecular, cellular and circuit organization

Bhattacherjee

Zhang

Watson

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is functionally one of the most complex regions of mammalian brain. Unlike other cortical areas that process single sensory modalities (like vision, touch, smell etc.), the PFC integrates information across brain regions to regulate diverse functions ranging from cognition, emotion, executive action to even pain sensitivity. However, it is unclear how such diverse functions are organized at the cellular and circuit levels within the anatomical modules of the PFC. Here we employed spatially resolved single cell profiling to decode PFC's organizational heterogeneity. The results revealed that PFC has very distinct cell type composition relative to all neighboring cortical areas. Interestingly, PFC adopts specialized transcriptional features, distinct from all neighbors, with differentially express genes regulating neuronal excitability. Additionally, projections of PFC neuron subclusters to major subcortical targets are determined in a target-intrinsic fashion. These cellular and molecular features further segregated within subregions of PFC, alluding to the subregion-specific specialization of several PFC functions. Finally, to exemplify the utility of these unique cellular, molecular and projection properties, we identified distinct cell types and circuits in PFC engaging in pathogenesis of chronic pain. Collectively, we not only present a comprehensive organizational map of the PFC, critical for supporting its diverse functions, but also reveal the cluster and circuit identity of a pathway underlying chronic pain pathogenesis, which paves ways for mechanistic understanding and potential interventions.

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“…The rat frontal cortex has been implicated in modulating behavior based on newly computed outcome values. The prelimbic cortex (PrL) neurons show increased responsiveness to cues following cue-outcome associative learning [8][9][10]. In addition, PrL is necessary during learning (i.e., forming associations) to guide subsequent goal-directed behavior [11][12][13][14] following outcome devaluation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%