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Activation of Basolateral Amygdala to Nucleus Accumbens Projection Neurons Attenuates Chronic Corticosterone-Induced Behavioral Deficits in Male Mice
The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is critical for reward behaviors via a projection to the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Specifically, BLA-NAc projections are involved in reinforcement learning, reward-seeking, sustained instrumental responding, and risk behaviors. However, it remains unclear whether chroni...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7943928/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33716685 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2021.643272 |
Sumario: | The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is critical for reward behaviors via a projection to the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Specifically, BLA-NAc projections are involved in reinforcement learning, reward-seeking, sustained instrumental responding, and risk behaviors. However, it remains unclear whether chronic stress interacts with BLA-NAc projection neurons to result in maladaptive behaviors. Here we take a chemogenetic, projection-specific approach to clarify how NAc-projecting BLA neurons affect avoidance, reward, and feeding behaviors in male mice. Then, we examine whether chemogenetic activation of NAc-projecting BLA neurons attenuates the maladaptive effects of chronic corticosterone (CORT) administration on these behaviors. CORT mimics the behavioral and neural effects of chronic stress exposure. We found a nuanced role of BLA-NAc neurons in mediating reward behaviors. Surprisingly, activation of BLA-NAc projections rescues CORT-induced deficits in the novelty suppressed feeding, a behavior typically associated with avoidance. Activation of BLA-NAc neurons also increases instrumental reward-seeking without affecting free-feeding in chronic CORT mice. Taken together, these data suggest that NAc-projecting BLA neurons are involved in chronic CORT-induced maladaptive reward and motivation behaviors. |
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