Microstimulation of primate neocortex targeting striosomes induces negative decision-making

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Decision-Making Research
• Computational Psychiatry

Background:

• Corticostriatal circuits are implicated in decision-making.
• Previous studies suggested pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC) microstimulation affects affective judgment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the functional role of corticostriatal circuits in decision-making under emotional conflict.
• To identify specific targets of pACC and caudal orbitofrontal cortex (cOFC) microstimulation that modulate avoidance behavior.

Main Methods:

• Combined MRI-guided electrical microstimulation with viral tracing in non-human primates.
• Utilized a cost-benefit decision-making task (Ap-Av task) to assess avoidance behavior.
• Performed post-mortem immunohistochemistry and fMRI to confirm circuit connectivity and activation.

Main Results:

• Microstimulation of specific pACC and cOFC sites increased avoidance decisions in the Ap-Av task.
• Identified strong fiber projections from these cortical sites to the anterior striatum, particularly striosomes.
• Demonstrated fMRI-based activation of the anterior striatum following microstimulation.

Conclusions:

• Established causal links between pACC/cOFC projections to striosomes and the modulation of decision-making under emotional conflict.
• Revealed that specific corticostriatal circuits causally influence affective decision-making processes.