Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Animals, humans included, navigate their environments guided by sensory cues, responding adaptively to potential dangers and rewards. Avoidance behaviors serve as adaptive strategies in the face of signaled threats, but the neural mechanisms orchestrating these behaviors remain elusive. Current circuit models of avoidance behaviors indicate that the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in the ventral striatum plays a key role in signaled avoidance behaviors, but the nature of this engagement is unclear. Evolving perspectives propose the NAc as a pivotal hub for action selection, integrating cognitive and affective information to heighten the efficiency of both appetitive and aversive motivated behaviors. To unravel the engagement of the NAc during active and passive avoidance, we used calcium imaging fiber photometry to examine NAc GABAergic neuron activity in ad libitum moving mice performing avoidance behaviors. We then probed the functional significance of NAc neurons using optogenetics and genetically targeted or electrolytic lesions. We found that NAc neurons code contraversive orienting movements and avoidance actions. However, direct optogenetic inhibition or lesions of NAc neurons did not impair active or passive avoidance behaviors, challenging the notion of their purported pivotal role in adaptive avoidance. The findings emphasize that while the NAc encodes avoidance movements, it is not required for avoidance behaviors, highlighting the distinction between behavior encoding or representation and mediation or generation.
Source: eNeuro
Authors: Ji Zhou, Sebastian Hormigo, Muhammad Sajid, Manuel A. Castro-Alamancos
Institutions: University of Connecticut, UConn Health
Language: English
Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,925
Awards: G1668598136, G5582856401
OpenAlex ID: W4402977637