Divergent projections of the prelimbic cortex bidirectionally regulate active avoidance.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Behavioral Neuroscience
• Decision Making

Background:

• The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is crucial for integrating information to guide goal-directed actions.
• Decision-making involves balancing competing drives, such as foraging and danger avoidance.
• Active avoidance tasks, like platform-mediated avoidance of footshock for sucrose, model these competing motivations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of prelimbic (PL) prefrontal cortex (PFC) outputs in regulating active avoidance behavior.
• To determine how PL projections to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and ventral striatum (VS) influence decision-making during competing drives.

Main Methods:

• Utilized optogenetics to selectively activate or inhibit projections from the PL (PFC) to the BLA and VS in a platform-mediated active avoidance task.
• Monitored behavioral avoidance and decision-making in rats presented with a tone predicting footshock and delayed sucrose reward.

Main Results:

• Photoactivating PL projections to the VS decreased avoidance behavior.
• Photoactivating PL projections to the BLA increased avoidance behavior.
• Inhibiting PL-BLA or BLA-VS projections reduced avoidance, indicating opposing roles of PL and BLA inputs to VS.

Conclusions:

• The prelimbic PFC exerts bidirectional control over active avoidance through distinct projections to the BLA and VS.
• Opposing inputs from the PL and BLA to the VS are critical for integrating competing motivations and enabling adaptive decisions.
• This neural circuitry allows animals to navigate situations with conflicting goals, such as seeking rewards while avoiding potential threats.