Iyer Eshaan S, Vitaro Peter, Wu Serena, Muir Jessie, Tse Yiu Chung, Cvetkovska Vedrana, Bagot Rosemary C
Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada.
Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada.
Nat Commun. 2025 Apr 15;16(1):3573. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-58858-4.
The nucleus accumbens, a highly integrative brain region controlling motivated behavior, receives various glutamatergic inputs, yet the relative functional specialization of these inputs is unclear. While circuit neuroscience commonly seeks specificity, redundancy can be highly adaptive and is a critical motif in circuit organization. Using dual-site fiber photometry in an operant reward task in mice, we simultaneously recorded from two accumbal glutamatergic afferents to assess circuit specialization. We identify a common neural motif integrating reward history in medial prefrontal cortex and ventral hippocampus inputs. By systematically degrading task complexity, dissociating reward from choice and action, we identify circuit-specificity in the behavioral conditions that recruit encoding. While input from the prefrontal cortex invariantly encodes reward, encoding in ventral hippocampal input is uniquely anchored to unrewarded outcomes. Optogenetic stimulation demonstrates that both inputs co-operatively modulate task engagement. We illustrate how similar encoding, differentially gated by behavioral state, supports state-sensitive tuning of reward-motivated behavior.
伏隔核是一个高度整合的脑区，控制着动机行为，它接收各种谷氨酸能输入，但其功能的相对特异性尚不清楚。虽然神经回路神经科学通常追求特异性，但冗余可能具有高度适应性，并且是神经回路组织中的一个关键模式。在小鼠的操作性奖励任务中，我们使用双位点光纤光度法，同时记录来自伏隔核的两种谷氨酸能传入纤维，以评估神经回路的特异性。我们发现了一个共同的神经模式，该模式整合了内侧前额叶皮质和腹侧海马输入中的奖励历史。通过系统地降低任务复杂性，将奖励与选择和行动分离，我们确定了在行为条件下招募编码的回路特异性。虽然前额叶皮质的输入始终编码奖励，但腹侧海马输入中的编码则独特地锚定在无奖励结果上。光遗传学刺激表明，这两种输入协同调节任务参与度。我们阐述了相似的编码如何通过行为状态进行差异门控，从而支持对奖励驱动行为的状态敏感调节。
