Selective activation of medial prefrontal-to-accumbens projection neurons by amygdala stimulation and Pavlovian conditioned stimuli

Medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) neurons respond to Pavlovian conditioned stimuli, and these responses depend on input from the basolateral amygdala (BLA). In this study, we examined the mPFC efferent circuits mediating conditioned responding by testing whether specific subsets of mPFC projection neurons receive BLA input and respond to conditioned stimuli. In urethane-anesthetized rats, we identified mPFC neurons that projected to the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) or to the contralateral mPFC (cmPFC) using antidromic activation. Stimulation of the BLA and Pavlovian conditioned odors selectively activated a subpopulation of ventral mPFC neurons that projected to NAcc, but elicited virtually no activation in mPFC neurons that projected to cmPFC. BLA stimulation typically evoked inhibitory responses among nonactivated neurons projecting to either site. These results suggest that the ventral mPFC-to-NAcc pathway may support behavioral responses to conditioned cues. Furthermore, because projections from the BLA (which also encode affective information) and the mPFC converge within the NAcc, the BLA may recruit the mPFC to drive specific sets of NAcc neurons, and thereby exert control over prefrontal cortical-striato-thalamocortical information flow.