Lavoie A M, Mizumori S J
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 84112.
Brain Res. 1994 Feb 28;638(1-2):157-68. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(94)90645-9.
Previous behavioral and acute electrophysiological data have lead researchers to speculate that the nucleus accumbens integrates limbic, reward and motor information. The present study examined the behavioral correlates to single unit activity of the nucleus accumbens and surrounding ventral striatum as a means of evaluating the integrative functioning of this region in an awake animal. Medial ventral striatum (mVS) activity was recorded as rats completed multiple trials on an eight arm radial maze. Neuronal activity was found to correlate with spatial, reward- and movement-related behavioral conditions. While the majority of cells demonstrated correlates of a single type (i.e. either spatial or reward correlates), 6 cells encoded multiple correlates of different types (i.e. spatial and reward correlates). The data suggests that this integrative process can be active both at the level of the individual neuron, and at the structural level. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the mVS integrates spatial and reward-related information, which in turn influences voluntary motor output structures in order to achieve accurate navigational behavior.
先前的行为学和急性电生理学数据使研究人员推测，伏隔核整合了边缘系统、奖赏和运动信息。本研究检测了与伏隔核及周围腹侧纹状体单单位活动相关的行为，以此作为评估该区域在清醒动物中整合功能的一种手段。当大鼠在八臂辐射状迷宫上完成多次试验时，记录其内侧腹侧纹状体（mVS）的活动。发现神经元活动与空间、奖赏和运动相关的行为条件相关。虽然大多数细胞表现出单一类型的相关性（即空间或奖赏相关性），但有6个细胞编码了不同类型的多种相关性（即空间和奖赏相关性）。数据表明，这种整合过程在单个神经元水平和结构水平上都可能是活跃的。这些结果与以下假设一致，即mVS整合空间和奖赏相关信息，进而影响自主运动输出结构，以实现准确的导航行为。
