Brain activation patterns during classical conditioning with appetitive or aversive UCS

The neural bases of appetitive and aversive conditioning are different, and at various stages of learning, may engage distinct cortical and subcortical networks. Using [14C]2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) autoradiography, we examined brain activation in mice during the first and the third sessions of a classical conditioning involving stimulation of whiskers on one side of the muzzle (conditioned stimulus, CS) paired with an aversive or appetitive unconditioned stimulus (UCS). The nucleus basalis magnocellularis showed stronger labelling during appetitive conditioning while the lateral hypothalamus was activated only during aversive pairing session. Also, in the appetitive training (both conditioning and pseudoconditioning), the ventral pallidum responded differently than in the aversive situation. A tendency for higher labelling of basolateral amygdala was noted in aversive conditioning. Somatosensory thalamic nuclei, as well as posterior parietal cortex and nucleus accumbens core, were strongly activated in both conditions during the first training session, but only by appetitive conditioning during the third session. With the exception of the nucleus basalis, ventral pallidum and lateral hypothalamus, appetitive or aversive classical conditioning increased 2-DG uptake in a similar set of brain structures. Activation of nucleus accumbens core, posterior parietal cortex, and structures of the somatosensory pathway decreases with the duration of training presumably due to different involvement of attention and different dynamics of the two variants of conditioning.