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The Journal of Neuroscience, May 20, 2009, 29(20):6599-6606; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1234-09.2009

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
A Role for Medial Prefrontal Dopaminergic Innervation in Instrumental Conditioning

Fabien Naneix,^1,2 Alain R. Marchand,^1,2 Georges Di Scala,^1,2 Jean-Rémi Pape,^1,2 * and Etienne Coutureau^1,2 *

¹Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and ²Université de Bordeaux, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5228, Talence F-33405, France

Correspondence should be addressed to Etienne Coutureau, Centre de Neurosciences Intégratives et Cognitives (Unité Mixte de Recherche 5228), Avenue des Facultés, Talence F-33405, France. E-mail: Email: e.coutureau{at}cnic.u-bordeaux1.fr

To investigate the involvement of dopaminergic projections to the prelimbic and infralimbic cortex in the control of goal-directed responses, a first experiment examined the effect of pretraining 6-OHDA lesions of these cortices. We used outcome devaluation and contingency degradation procedures to separately assess the representation of the outcome as a goal or the encoding of the contingency between the action and its outcome. All groups acquired the instrumental response at a normal rate, indicating that dopaminergic activity in the medial prefrontal cortex is not necessary for the acquisition of instrumental learning. Sham-operated animals showed sensitivity to both outcome devaluation and contingency degradation. Animals with dopaminergic lesions of the prelimbic cortex, but not the infralimbic cortex, failed to adapt their instrumental response to changes in contingency, whereas their response remained sensitive to outcome devaluation. In a second experiment, aimed at determining whether dopamine was specifically needed during contingency changes, we performed microinfusions of the dopamine D₁/D₂ receptor antagonist flupenthixol in the prelimbic cortex only before contingency degradation sessions. Animals with infusions of flupenthixol failed to adapt their response to changes in contingency, thus replicating the deficit of animals with dopaminergic lesions in Experiment 1. These results demonstrate that dissociable neurobiological mechanisms support action–outcome relationships and goal representation, dopamine signaling in the prelimbic cortex being necessary for the former but not the latter.

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Received March 13, 2009; revised April 15, 2009; accepted April 19, 2009.

Correspondence should be addressed to Etienne Coutureau, Centre de Neurosciences Intégratives et Cognitives (Unité Mixte de Recherche 5228), Avenue des Facultés, Talence F-33405, France. E-mail: Email: e.coutureau{at}cnic.u-bordeaux1.fr

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. Lex and W. Hauber The Role of Dopamine in the Prelimbic Cortex and the Dorsomedial Striatum in Instrumental Conditioning Cereb Cortex, August 12, 2009; (2009) bhp151v2. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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