Orbitofrontal Cortex Mediates Sustained Basolateral Amygdala Encoding of Cued Reward-Seeking States

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Behavioral Neuroscience
• Systems Neuroscience

Background:

• The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is involved in processing emotionally salient stimuli.
• Understanding BLA dynamics in reward-seeking behavior, especially under uncertainty, is an active research area.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how BLA neural activity relates to the acquisition and extinction of conditioned reward seeking.
• To explore the role of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in regulating BLA activity during reward seeking.

Main Methods:

• Recorded single BLA neuron activity in male rats during a conditioned reward-seeking task.
• Utilized OFC inactivation and optogenetic manipulation of BLA and OFC terminals.
• Assessed neural dynamics in response to conditioned stimuli (CS+) and unconditioned rewards.

Main Results:

• BLA neurons showed sustained cue-evoked activity that correlated with behavior and terminated post-reward.
• A majority of BLA neurons exhibited prolonged inhibition during cued reward seeking.
• OFC inactivation blunted sustained BLA activity and reduced reward seeking.
• Optogenetic disruption of BLA and OFC pathways impaired reward seeking.

Conclusions:

• The BLA represents reward-seeking states via sustained, bidirectional cue-driven neural encoding.
• Cortical input, particularly from the OFC, regulates this BLA code.
• This neural representation is vital for maintaining vigilant reward-seeking behavior.