Functional interaction between the hippocampus and nucleus accumbens shell is necessary for the acquisition of appetitive spatial context conditioning.

Full Abstract

The nucleus accumbens (NAc) has been implicated in a variety of associative processes that are dependent on the integrity of the amygdala and hippocampus (HPC). However, the extent to which the two subregions of the NAc, the core and shell, form differentiated circuits within the amygdala- and hippocampal-ventral striatal circuitry remains unclear. The present study investigated the effects of selective excitotoxic lesions of the nucleus accumbens shell or core subregion on appetitive elemental cue and context conditioning, shown previously to be dependent on the basolateral amygdala and hippocampus, respectively. Rats were trained sequentially to acquire discrete conditioned stimulus-sucrose conditioning, followed by spatial context-sucrose conditioning in a place preference apparatus characterized by three topographically identical chambers, the chambers being discriminable only on the basis of path integration. NAc shell lesions selectively impaired the acquisition of conditioned place preference and the use of spatial information to retrieve information about a discrete cue, whereas, as expected, NAc core lesions attenuated the acquisition of cue conditioning compared with sham rats. In a subsequent experiment, disconnection of the HPC from the NAc shell using unilateral asymmetric lesions of each structure resulted in a pattern of impairment in place conditioning and context-dependent cue retrieval similar to that produced by NAc shell lesions. These data not only suggest that the NAc core and shell subregions subserve distinct associative processes but also that the NAc shell and HPC are important functional components of a limbic corticostriatal network involved in spatial context conditioning.

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Author information

Author/s: Ito, Rutsuko (R); Robbins, Trevor W (TW); Pennartz, Cyriel M (CM); Everitt, Barry J (BJ);

Affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom. rutsuko.ito(-atsign-)psy.ox.ac.uk

Journal and publication information

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

Journal: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience (J Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jul; vol 28 (issue 27) : pp 6950-9

Dates: Created 2008/07/03; Completed 2008/08/12;

PMID: 18596169, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Animals
Appetitive Behavior - physiology
Association Learning - physiology
Brain Injuries - physiopathology
Conditioning (Psychology) - physiology
Cues
Denervation
Discrimination Learning - physiology
Hippocampus - anatomy & histology; physiology
Learning Disorders - etiology; physiopathology
Male

Male
Memory - physiology
Memory Disorders - etiology; physiopathology
Motivation
Nerve Net - anatomy & histology; physiology
Neural Pathways - anatomy & histology; physiology
Neurotoxins
Nucleus Accumbens - anatomy & histology; physiology
Rats
Reward
Space Perception - physiology

Associated Chemicals: Neurotoxins (0)

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