Journal
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 38, Issue 19, Pages 4584-4597Publisher
SOC NEUROSCIENCE
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2579-17.2018
Keywords
approach; avoidance; extinction; prefrontal; reward; single neuron
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Funding
- National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Drug Abuse) [R01DA040993]
- National Institutes of Health (National Institute of Mental Health) [R01MH071589]
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Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is thought to provide regulatory control over Pavlovian fear responses and has recently been implicated in appetitive approach behavior, but much less is known about its role in contexts in which appetitive and aversive outcomes can be obtained and avoided, respectively. To address this issue, we recorded from single neurons in vmPFC while male rats performed our combined approach and avoidance task under reinforced and non-reinforced (extinction) conditions. Surprisingly, we found that cues predicting reward modulated cell firing in vmPFC more often and more robustly than cues preceding avoidable shock; in addition, firing of vmPFC neurons was both response (press or no-press) and outcome (reinforced or extinction) selective. These results suggest a complex role for vmPFC in regulating behavior and support its role in appetitive contexts during both reinforced and non-reinforced conditions.
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