TY - JOUR
T1 - Invigoration of reward seeking by cue and proximity encoding in the nucleus accumbens
AU - McGinty, Vincent B.
AU - Lardeux, Sylvie
AU - Taha, Sharif A.
AU - Kim, James J.
AU - Nicola, Saleem M.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank S. Morrison, J. du Hoffmann, K. Caref, K. Wright, D. Moorman, P. W. German, F. Ambroggi, and H. Fields for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the NIH (DA019473 and MH092757 to S.M.N. and MH094870 to S.A.T.); from NARSAD, the Klarman Family Foundation, and the Peter F. McManus Charitable Trust (to S.M.N.); from the Hilda and Preston Davis Foundation (to S.L.); and from the Tourette Syndrome Association (to V.B.M.).
PY - 2013/6/5
Y1 - 2013/6/5
N2 - A key function of the nucleus accumbens is to promote vigorous reward seeking, but the corresponding neural mechanism has not been identified despite many years of research. Here, we study cued flexible approach behavior, a form of reward seeking that strongly depends on the accumbens, and we describe a robust, single-cell neural correlate of behavioral vigor in the excitatory response of accumbens neurons to reward-predictive cues. Well before locomotion begins, this cue-evoked excitation predicts both the movement initiation latency and the speed of subsequent flexible approach responses, but not those of stereotyped, inflexible responses. Moreover, the excitation simultaneously signals the subject@s proximity to the approach target, a signal that appears to mediate greater response vigor on trials that begin with the subject closer to the target. These results demonstrate a neural mechanism for response invigoration whereby accumbens neuronal encoding of reward availability and target proximity together drive the onset and speed of reward-seeking locomotion
AB - A key function of the nucleus accumbens is to promote vigorous reward seeking, but the corresponding neural mechanism has not been identified despite many years of research. Here, we study cued flexible approach behavior, a form of reward seeking that strongly depends on the accumbens, and we describe a robust, single-cell neural correlate of behavioral vigor in the excitatory response of accumbens neurons to reward-predictive cues. Well before locomotion begins, this cue-evoked excitation predicts both the movement initiation latency and the speed of subsequent flexible approach responses, but not those of stereotyped, inflexible responses. Moreover, the excitation simultaneously signals the subject@s proximity to the approach target, a signal that appears to mediate greater response vigor on trials that begin with the subject closer to the target. These results demonstrate a neural mechanism for response invigoration whereby accumbens neuronal encoding of reward availability and target proximity together drive the onset and speed of reward-seeking locomotion
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U2 - 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.04.010
DO - 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.04.010
M3 - Article
C2 - 23764290
AN - SCOPUS:84878872306
SN - 0896-6273
VL - 78
SP - 910
EP - 922
JO - Neuron
JF - Neuron
IS - 5
ER -