Journal
NEURON
Volume 103, Issue 3, Pages 423-+Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.05.018
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Funding
- NIH [F32-DA041184, R37-DA032750, R01-DA038168]
- Brain & Behavior Research Foundation
- Foundation of Hope
- MUSC Confocal Core [S10 OD021532]
- UNC Neuroscience Center (Helen Lyng White Fellowship)
- UNC Neuroscience Center Microscopy Core [P30 NS045892]
- UNC Department of Psychiatry
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The paraventricular thalamus (PVT) is an interface for brain reward circuits, with input signals arising from structures, such as prefrontal cortex and hypothalamus, that are broadcast to downstream limbic targets. However, the precise synaptic connectivity, activity, and function of PVT circuitry for reward processing are unclear. Here, using in vivo two-photon calcium imaging, we find that PVT neurons projecting to the nucleus accumbens (PVT-NAc) develop inhibitory responses to reward-predictive cues coding for both cue-reward associative information and behavior. The multiplexed activity in PVT-NAc neurons is directed by opposing activity patterns in prefrontal and lateral hypothalamic afferent axons. Further, we find that prefrontal cue encoding may maintain accurate cue-reward processing, as optogenetic disruption of this encoding induced long-lasting effects on downstream PVT-NAc cue responses and behavioral cue discrimination. Together, these data reveal that PVT-NAc neurons act as an interface for reward processing by integrating relevant inputs to accurately inform reward-seeking behavior.
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