Cortico-Accumbens Regulation of Approach-Avoidance Behavior Is Modified by Experience and Chronic Pain

Publication date: 23 May 2017
Source:Cell Reports, Volume 19, Issue 8
Author(s): Neil Schwartz, Catriona Miller, Howard L. Fields
Although optimizing decisions between drives to avoid pain and to obtain reward are critical for survival, understanding the neuronal circuit activity that regulates choice during approach-avoidance conflicts is limited. Here, we recorded neuronal activity in the infralimbic (IL) cortex and nucleus accumbens (NAc) during an approach-avoidance task. In this task, disruption of approach by a pain-predictive cue (PPC-avoidance) is extinguished by experience and reinstated in a model of chronic pain. In the IL-NAc circuit, the activity of distinct subpopulations of neurons predicts the extent of PPC-avoidance observed. Furthermore, chemogenetic and optogenetic manipulations establish that IL-NAc circuitry regulates PPC-avoidance behavior. Our results indicate that IL-NAc circuitry is engaged during approach-avoidance conflicts, and modifications of this circuit by experience and chronic pain determine whether approach or avoidance occurs.

Graphical abstract

Teaser

Schwartz et al. establish that an approach-avoidance choice is regulated by cortico-accumbens activity, and that learning, chronic pain, or targeted manipulations of this circuit determine whether approach or avoidance occurs.


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