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Updated: Jun 26, 2026
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An Automated T-maze Based Apparatus and Protocol for Analyzing Delay- and Effort-based Decision Making in Free Moving Rodents
Published on: August 2, 2018
Prefrontostriatal circuitry regulates effort-related decision making
Wolfgang Hauber1, Susanne Sommer
1Abteilung Tierphysiologie, Biologisches Institute, Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany. hauber@bio.uni-stuttgart.de
Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
|January 10, 2009
Summary
Effort-based decision-making relies on the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and nucleus accumbens (NAc) core. Disrupting this ACC-NAc pathway impairs choices involving reward effort.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Behavioral Neuroscience
- Decision Neuroscience
Background:
- The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), basolateral amygdala (BLA), and nucleus accumbens (NAc) dopamine system are crucial for effort-based reward decisions.
- Understanding the functional interactions within this system is key to explaining decision-making processes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the functional interactions between the ACC and NAc core in regulating effort-based decision-making.
- To determine the role of the ACC-NAc pathway in evaluating the costs and benefits of reward-seeking behavior.
Main Methods:
- Rats were trained on a T-maze cost-benefit task, requiring choices between high-effort/large-reward and low-effort/small-reward options.
- Excitotoxic lesions were used to target the NAc core (Experiment 1) and to disconnect the ACC from the NAc core (Experiment 2).
Main Results:
- Bilateral lesions of the NAc core significantly impaired effort-based decision-making, reducing preference for the high-effort option.
- Disconnection of the ACC and NAc core also impaired effort-based decision-making, highlighting the necessity of their interaction.
Conclusions:
- Effort-based decision-making is regulated by an interconnected neural system involving the ACC and NAc core.
- Serial information transfer between the ACC and NAc core is essential for these decisions.
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