Goal-directed responding is sensitive to lesions to the prelimbic cortex or basolateral nucleus of the amygdala but not to their disconnection.
Behavioral Neuroscience. 2009-01-01; 123(2): 443-448
DOI: 10.1037/a0014818
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1. Behav Neurosci. 2009 Apr;123(2):443-8. doi: 10.1037/a0014818.
Goal-directed responding is sensitive to lesions to the prelimbic cortex or
basolateral nucleus of the amygdala but not to their disconnection.
Coutureau E(1), Marchand AR, Di Scala G.
Author information:
(1)CNRS, Talence, France.
The current view of instrumental conditioning indicates that performance in the
early stage of training is maintained by a representation of the outcome, as
indexed by its sensitivity to changes in the value of the reward. In the present
study, the authors tested the effects of a disconnection of the prelimbic cortex
(PL) and the basolateral nucleus of the amygdale (BLA), using an asymmetric
lesion procedure, to determine whether these structures interact sequentially as
part of a corticolimbic system. In marked contrast to the effects of bilateral
lesions of the PL or the BLA, which both altered rats’ sensitivity to outcome
devaluation, the disconnection of these 2 brain areas was without an effect on
outcome devaluation. These results demonstrate that the PL and the BLA mediate
different aspects of outcome representation in goal-directed responding.
(c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.
DOI: 10.1037/a0014818
PMID: 19331467 [Indexed for MEDLINE]