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The Journal of Neuroscience, May 7, 2008, 28(19):5088-5098; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0253-08.2008

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex Contribution to Behavioral and Nucleus Accumbens Neuronal Responses to Incentive Cues

Akinori Ishikawa,¹ Frederic Ambroggi,¹ Saleem M. Nicola,^1,2 and Howard L. Fields¹

¹Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center and Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, Emeryville, California 94608, and ²Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461

Correspondence should be addressed to Akinori Ishikawa at his present address: 1-1-1 Minamikogushi, Ube, Yamaguchi 755-8505, Japan. Email: akinori{at}yamaguchi-u.ac.jp

Cue-elicited phasic changes in firing of nucleus accumbens (NAc) neurons can facilitate reward-seeking behavior. Here, we test the hypothesis that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which sends a dense glutamatergic projection to the NAc core, contributes to NAc neuronal firing responses to reward-predictive cues. Rats trained to perform an operant response to a cue for sucrose were implanted with recording electrodes in the core of the NAc and microinjection cannulas in the dorsal mPFC (dmPFC). The cue-evoked firing of NAc neurons was reduced by bilateral injection of GABA_A and GABA_B agonists into the dmPFC concomitant with loss of behavioral responding to the cue. In addition, unilateral dmPFC inactivation reduced ipsilateral cue excitations and contralateral cue inhibitions. These findings indicate that cue-evoked excitations and inhibitions of NAc core neurons depend on dmPFC projections to the NAc and that these phasic changes contribute to the behavioral response to reward-predictive cues.

Key words: anterior cingulate cortex; discriminative stimulus; nucleus accumbens core; prelimbic cortex; reward-seeking behavior; ventral striatum

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Received Jan. 18, 2008; revised March 11, 2008; accepted March 19, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Akinori Ishikawa at his present address: 1-1-1 Minamikogushi, Ube, Yamaguchi 755-8505, Japan. Email: akinori{at}yamaguchi-u.ac.jp

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