Skip Navigation


Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on December 7, 2007
Cerebral Cortex 2008 18(8):1961-1972; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm223
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
18/8/1961    most recent
bhm223v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by McGinty, V. B.
Right arrow Articles by Grace, A. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by McGinty, V. B.
Right arrow Articles by Grace, A. A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Selective Activation of Medial Prefrontal-to-Accumbens Projection Neurons by Amygdala Stimulation and Pavlovian Conditioned Stimuli

Vincent B. McGinty1,2 and Anthony A. Grace1

1 Departments of Neuroscience, Psychiatry, Psychology and the Center for Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260 USA, 2 Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260 USA

Address correspondence to Vincent B. McGinty, Department of Neuroscience, A210 Langley Hall, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. Email: vbm2{at}pitt.edu.

Medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) neurons respond to Pavlovian conditioned stimuli, and these responses depend on input from the basolateral amygdala (BLA). In this study, we examined the mPFC efferent circuits mediating conditioned responding by testing whether specific subsets of mPFC projection neurons receive BLA input and respond to conditioned stimuli. In urethane-anesthetized rats, we identified mPFC neurons that projected to the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) or to the contralateral mPFC (cmPFC) using antidromic activation. Stimulation of the BLA and Pavlovian conditioned odors selectively activated a subpopulation of ventral mPFC neurons that projected to NAcc, but elicited virtually no activation in mPFC neurons that projected to cmPFC. BLA stimulation typically evoked inhibitory responses among nonactivated neurons projecting to either site. These results suggest that the ventral mPFC-to-NAcc pathway may support behavioral responses to conditioned cues. Furthermore, because projections from the BLA (which also encode affective information) and the mPFC converge within the NAcc, the BLA may recruit the mPFC to drive specific sets of NAcc neurons, and thereby exert control over prefrontal cortical-striato-thalamocortical information flow.

Key Words: corticostriatal • electrophysiology • emotion • in vivo • infralimbic • fear


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Neurophysiol.Home page
V. B. McGinty and A. A. Grace
Timing-Dependent Regulation of Evoked Spiking in Nucleus Accumbens Neurons by Integration of Limbic and Prefrontal Cortical Inputs
J Neurophysiol, April 1, 2009; 101(4): 1823 - 1835.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.