Neuronal ensemble bursting in the basal forebrain encodes salience irrespective of valence.

Full Abstract

Both reward- and punishment-related stimuli are motivationally salient and attract the attention of animals. However, it remains unclear how motivational salience is processed in the brain. Here, we show that both reward- and punishment-predicting stimuli elicited robust bursting of many noncholinergic basal forebrain (BF) neurons in behaving rats. The same BF neurons also responded with similar bursting to primary reinforcement of both valences. Reinforcement responses were modulated by expectation, with surprising reinforcement eliciting stronger BF bursting. We further demonstrate that BF burst firing predicted successful detection of near-threshold stimuli. Together, our results point to the existence of a salience-encoding system independent of stimulus valence. We propose that the encoding of motivational salience by ensemble bursting of noncholinergic BF neurons may improve behavioral performance by affecting the activity of widespread cortical circuits and therefore represents a novel candidate mechanism for top-down attention.

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Author information

Author/s: Lin, Shih-Chieh (SC); Nicolelis, Miguel A L (MA);

Affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. sclin(-atsign-)neuro.duke.edu

Grants: P50MH060451 (Agency:United States NIMH) ; R01DE011451 (Agency:United States NIDCR)

Journal and publication information

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

Journal: Neuron (Neuron), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jul; vol 59 (issue 1) : pp 138-49

Dates: Created 2008/07/10; Completed 2008/08/12;

PMID: 18614035, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

CommentIn: Neuron. 2008 Jul 10;59(1):6-8. (PMID: 18614024)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Acoustic Stimulation - methods
Action Potentials - physiology
Animals
Attention - physiology
Behavior, Animal
Choice Behavior - physiology
Cues
Discrimination (Psychology) - physiology
Extinction, Psychological
Male

Male
Neurons - physiology
Photic Stimulation - methods
Predictive Value of Tests
Prosencephalon - cytology
Rats
Rats, Long-Evans
Reinforcement (Psychology)
Spectrum Analysis
Water Deprivation - physiology

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