Cortico-limbic-striatal contribution after response and reversal learning: a metabolic mapping study

Learning of arbitrary stimulus-response associations is an adaptive behavior essential for species survival in an ever-changing environment. Particular subdivisions of the striatum have been shown to be critical for both motor-response learning and reversal learning. However, recent evidence suggests that different cortical and subcortical brain regions may be involved in response learning, a kind of learning more complex than previously thought. In fact, many brain regions subserving response learning seem to be also related to reversal learning, traditionally ascribed to the prefrontal cortex. The present study examined the role of different subdivisions of the rat prefrontal cortex, striatum, amygdala and the ventral tegmental area on both response and reversal learning evaluated in the water T-maze. Increased neuronal metabolic activity, as measured by cytochrome oxidase (CO) histochemistry, was found in most brain regions after training rats in a response learning task as compared to yoked controls. Reversal learning was associated with a return to baseline CO activity levels except for the orbitofrontal cortex and the ventral tegmental area. Analysis of functional connectivity among brain regions showed significant correlations in CO activity between particular cortical and striatal subdivisions in the reversal learning group. These findings suggest that the interaction of specific frontal and subcortical regions is required for reversal but not for response learning. However, our findings support the involvement of a cortico-limbic-striatal circuit in both types of learning.