Work

Activation of serotonin neurons promotes active persistence in a probabilistic foraging task

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: The neuromodulator serotonin (5-HT) has been implicated in a variety of functions that involve patience or impulse control. Many of these effects are consistent with a long-standing theory that 5-HT promotes behavioral inhibition, a motivational bias favoring passive over active behaviors. To further test this idea, we studied the impact of 5-HT in a probabilistic foraging task, in which mice must learn the statistics of the environment and infer when to leave a depleted foraging site for the next. Critically, mice were required to actively nose-poke in order to exploit a given site. We show that optogenetic activation of 5-HT neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus increases the willingness of mice to actively attempt to exploit a reward site before giving up. These results indicate that behavioral inhibition is not an adequate description of 5-HT function and suggest that a unified account must be based on a higher-order function.

Source: Nature Communications

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03438-y

Authors: Eran Lottem, Dhruba Banerjee, Pietro Vertechi, Dario Sarra, Matthijs oude Lohuis, Zachary F. Mainen

Institutions: Centro Champalimaud, University of California, Irvine, University of Amsterdam

Language: English

Topic: Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior

Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $6,990

Funders: Fundação Champalimaud, H2020 European Research Council, FP7 Ideas: European Research Council