Male rodent perirhinal cortex, but not ventral hippocampus, inhibition induces approach bias under object-based approach-avoidance conflict

Neural models of approach-avoidance (AA) conflict behavior and its dysfunction have focused traditionally on the hippocampus, with the assumption that this medial temporal lobe (MTL) structure plays a ubiquitous role in arbitrating AA conflict. We challenge this perspective by using three different AA behavioral tasks in conjunction with optogenetics, to demonstrate that a neighboring region in male rats, perirhinal cortex, is also critically involved but only when conflicting motivational values are associated with objects and not contextual information. The ventral hippocampus, in contrast, was found not to be essential for object-associated AA conflict, suggesting its preferential involvement in context-associated conflict. We propose that stimulus type can impact MTL involvement during AA conflict and that a more nuanced understanding of MTL contributions to impaired AA behavior (e.g., anxiety) is required. These findings serve to expand upon the established functions of the perirhinal cortex while concurrently presenting innovative behavioral paradigms that permit the assessment of different facets of AA conflict behavior.