Dopamine and noradrenaline efflux in the medial prefrontal cortex during serial reversals and extinction of instrumental goal-directed behavior.

Full Abstract

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) of the rat supports cognitive flexibility, the ability to spontaneously adapt goal-directed behavior in response to radically changing situational demands. We have shown previously that transient inactivation of the rat medial PFC (mPFC) impairs initial reversal learning in a spatial 2-lever discrimination task. Given the importance of dopamine (DA) for PFC function, we studied DA (and noradrenaline [NA]) efflux in the mPFC during reversal learning. We observed a higher and more extended increase in DA efflux in rats performing the first reversal compared with controls performing the previously acquired discrimination. The results of an additional experiment suggest that such a difference between the reversal- and control-induced DA increases was absent during a third reversal. During the extinction session, DA efflux did not increase from basal levels. Increases in NA efflux were less than in DA and did not differ between control and any condition. We conclude that prefrontal DA activity is increased during execution of instrumental discrimination tasks and that this increase is amplified during the acquisition of a first, but not of later reversals. These data corroborate our previous findings and indicate that DA is critically involved in this form of cognitive flexibility.

Author information

Author/s: van der Meulen, Jamilja A J (JA); Joosten, Ruud N J M A (RN); de Bruin, Jan P C (JP); Feenstra, Matthijs G P (MG);

Affiliation: Netherlands Institute for Neurosciences, Graduate School of Neurosciences Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 33, 1105 AZ Amsterdam ZO, The Netherlands.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) (Cereb Cortex), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Jun; vol 17 (issue 6) : pp 1444-53

Dates: Created 2007/05/11; Completed 2007/07/03;

PMID: 16920882, status: MEDLINE (last retrieved date: 2/18/2009)

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