The Journal of Neuroscience, March 2, 2005, 25(9):2359-2365; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4146-04.2005
Previous Article | Next Article 
Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Impaired Outcome-Specific Devaluation of Instrumental Responding in Mice with a Targeted Deletion of the AMPA Receptor Glutamate Receptor 1 Subunit
Alexander W. Johnson,1
David M. Bannerman,2
Nicholas P. Rawlins,2
Rolf Sprengel,3 and
Mark A. Good1
1School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3YG, United Kingdom, 2Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3UD, United Kingdom, and 3Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
The present study evaluated the proposal that mice with a targeted deletion of the glutamate receptor 1 (GluR1) subunit of the AMPA receptor are impaired in using an instrumental or pavlovian signal to gain access to a representation of the sensory-specific motivational properties of a primary reward. In experiment 1, mice were trained to approach two goal boxes in a plus-maze; each goal box contained a different reward (sucrose solution vs food pellet). After acquisition, one of the rewards was devalued by an outcome-specific satiety procedure. Subsequent test trials performed in extinction showed an increase in the latency to enter the devalued goal arm, relative to the nondevalued goal arm in control but not GluR1-/- mice. In experiment 2, a similar outcome-specific satiety procedure was used to examine the effects of reward devaluation on an instrumental nose-poke response. During testing, control but not GluR1-/- mice decreased their rate of responding on a nose poke associated with a devalued reward. A subsequent choice test showed that GluR1-/- mice were able to discriminate between the devalued and nondevalued outcomes used in both experiments. These deficits mirror those seen after lesions of the basolateral amygdala and suggests that GluR1-mediated neurotransmission in this region contributes to encoding the relationship between sensory-specific aspects of reward and their incentive value.
Key words: AMPA; glutamate; incentive; amygdala; instrumental; reinforcement
Received July 8, 2004;
revised December 13, 2004;
accepted December 20, 2004.
This article has been cited by other articles:

|
 |

|
 |
 
A. W. Johnson, H. S. Crombag, K. Takamiya, J. M. Baraban, P. C. Holland, R. L. Huganir, and I. M. Reti
A Selective Role for Neuronal Activity Regulated Pentraxin in the Processing of Sensory-Specific Incentive Value
J. Neurosci.,
December 5, 2007;
27(49):
13430 - 13435.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|