Basolateral amygdala population coding of a cued reward seeking state depends on orbitofrontal cortex

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Behavioral Neuroscience

Background:

• Conditioned behaviors are linked to neuronal responses in the basolateral amygdala (BLA).
• Understanding the dynamics of BLA neuronal activity during evolving behaviors is crucial.

Approach:

• Recorded individual BLA neuron activity during acquisition and extinction of conditioned reward seeking.
• Utilized population-level analyses to examine neural dynamics.
• Inactivated the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to assess its contribution to BLA activity.
• Employed optogenetics to disrupt BLA and OFC terminal activity.

Key Points:

• Sustained, cue-evoked BLA activity emerged with training, distinguishing conditioned stimuli (CS+ vs. CS-) and correlating with reward-seeking behavior.
• This sustained activity persisted until reward and rapidly extinguished with behavior.
• OFC inactivation blunted sustained BLA activity and reduced reward seeking.
• Disrupting BLA or OFC terminals in the BLA impaired reward seeking.

Conclusions:

• Sustained cue-driven activity in the BLA underlies conditioned reward-seeking states.
• This BLA activity is partly dependent on input from the OFC.