Nucleus Accumbens Neurons Are Innately Tuned for Rewarding and Aversive Taste Stimuli, Encode Their Predictors, and Are Linked to Motor Output

SummaryThe nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a key component of the brain's reward pathway, yet little is known of how NAc cells respond to primary rewarding or aversive stimuli. Here, naive rats received brief intraoral infusions of sucrose and quinine paired with cues in a classical conditioning paradigm while the electrophysiological activity of individual NAc neurons was recorded. NAc neurons (102) were typically inhibited by sucrose (39 of 52, 75%) or excited by quinine (30 of 40, 75%) infusions. Changes in firing rate were correlated with the oromotor response to intraoral infusions. Most taste-responsive neurons responded to only one of the stimuli. NAc neurons developed responses to the cues paired with sucrose and quinine. Thus, NAc neurons are innately tuned to rewarding and aversive stimuli and rapidly develop responses to predictive cues. The results indicate that the output of the NAc is very different when rats taste rewarding versus aversive stimuli

Gated communities: Definitions, causes and consequences

Gated communities became an 'object of study' in the 1990s as social scientists observed their growth in several cities; they are now a feature of the urban landscape in most cities around the world. The expansion of gated communities has led to prolific research, examining different aspects of this type of residential development and providing evidence from case studies worldwide. This paper reviews how gated communities are conceptualised according to the literature and identifies the main factors influencing their development. It also considers spatial, economic, political and social consequences of the development of gated communities. These elements should be taken into account by planners and policymakers to minimise their negative impacts and maximise the positive consequences of a residential option that is likely to be part of the urban landscape for a long time

Real-time chemical responses in the nucleus accumbens differentiate rewarding and aversive stimuli

Rewarding and aversive stimuli evoke very different patterns of behavior and are rapidly discriminated. Here taste stimuli of opposite hedonic valence evoked opposite patterns of dopamine and metabolic activity within milliseconds in the nucleus accumbens. This rapid encoding may serve to guide ongoing behavioral responses and promote plastic changes in underlying circuitry

Manejo de la oferta forrajera en el Parque Nacional Campos del Tuyú y en campos ganaderos vecinos para la conservación del venado de las pampas

150-165El Parque Nacional Campos del Tuyú, ubicado en el extremo sur de la Bahía de Samborombón, es un área protegida creada para conservar el venado de las pampas (Ozotoceros bezoarticus celer). Los antecedentes sugieren que la protección del venado de las pampas dependería, entre otros factores, de la disponibilidad y calidad de la oferta forrajera provista por las dos comunidades preferidas como hábitat de alimentación: el monte de tala y el espartillar. Con el fin de mejorar la oferta de forraje se diseñaron y evaluaron prácticas de manejo específicas para las dos comunidades: a) exclusión del ganado en los montes de tala del establecimiento ganadero aledaño, luego de una defoliación intensa a fin de verano, y b) defoliaciones mecánicas periódicas en los espartillares. La defoliación intensa a fin del verano seguida por la exclusión al pastoreo del ganado entre marzo y agosto en los montes de tala del establecimiento vecino promovió la aparición o aumentó la contribución de los pastos nativos invernales Bromus catharticus, Bromus auleticus y Elymus scabrifolius, de los estivales Bothriochloa laguroides y Paspalum dilatatum y de la leguminosa Melilotus officinalis. La defoliación periódica del espartillar durante el período de crecimiento de la especie dominante, Spartina densiflora, incrementó la contribución de los pastos invernales nativos Elymus scabrifolius, Chaetotropis elongata y Phalaris angusta, y de la leguminosa Melilotus officinalis, y disminuyó la cobertura de la paja Cortaderia selloana. En ambas comunidades se registró un aumento del valor zootécnico ya que las especies que elevaron su contribución fueron pastos y leguminosas de alto valor nutritivo, mientras que las especies que disminuyeron su cobertura fueron herbáceas de escaso valor nutritivo

Manejo de la oferta forrajera en el Parque Nacional Campos del Tuyú y en campos ganaderos vecinos para la conservación del venado de las pampas

150-165El Parque Nacional Campos del Tuyú, ubicado en el extremo sur de la Bahía de Samborombón, es un área protegida creada para conservar el venado de las pampas (Ozotoceros bezoarticus celer). Los antecedentes sugieren que la protección del venado de las pampas dependería, entre otros factores, de la disponibilidad y calidad de la oferta forrajera provista por las dos comunidades preferidas como hábitat de alimentación: el monte de tala y el espartillar. Con el fin de mejorar la oferta de forraje se diseñaron y evaluaron prácticas de manejo específicas para las dos comunidades: a) exclusión del ganado en los montes de tala del establecimiento ganadero aledaño, luego de una defoliación intensa a fin de verano, y b) defoliaciones mecánicas periódicas en los espartillares. La defoliación intensa a fin del verano seguida por la exclusión al pastoreo del ganado entre marzo y agosto en los montes de tala del establecimiento vecino promovió la aparición o aumentó la contribución de los pastos nativos invernales Bromus catharticus, Bromus auleticus y Elymus scabrifolius, de los estivales Bothriochloa laguroides y Paspalum dilatatum y de la leguminosa Melilotus officinalis. La defoliación periódica del espartillar durante el período de crecimiento de la especie dominante, Spartina densiflora, incrementó la contribución de los pastos invernales nativos Elymus scabrifolius, Chaetotropis elongata y Phalaris angusta, y de la leguminosa Melilotus officinalis, y disminuyó la cobertura de la paja Cortaderia selloana. En ambas comunidades se registró un aumento del valor zootécnico ya que las especies que elevaron su contribución fueron pastos y leguminosas de alto valor nutritivo, mientras que las especies que disminuyeron su cobertura fueron herbáceas de escaso valor nutritivo

Dopamine Operates as a Subsecond Modulator of Food Seeking

The dopamine projection to the nucleus accumbens has been implicated in behaviors directed toward the acquisition and consumption of natural rewards. The neurochemical studies that established this link made time-averaged measurements over minutes, and so the precise temporal relationship between dopamine changes and these behaviors is not known. To resolve this, we sampled dopamine every 100 msec using fast-scan cyclic voltammetry at carbon-fiber microelectrodes in the nucleus accumbens of rats trained to press a lever for sucrose. Cues that signal the opportunity to respond for sucrose evoked dopamine release (67 +/- 20 nm) with short latency (0.2 +/- 0.1 sec onset). When the same cues were presented to rats naive to the cue-sucrose pairing, similar dopamine signals were not observed. Thus, cue-evoked increases in dopamine in trained rats reflected a learned association between the cues and sucrose availability. Lever presses for sucrose occurred at the peak of the dopamine surges. After lever presses, and while sucrose was delivered and consumed, no further increases in dopamine were detected. Rather, dopamine returned to baseline levels. Together, the results strongly implicate subsecond dopamine signaling in the nucleus accumbens as a real-time modulator of food-seeking behavior

Regional specificity in the real-time development of phasic dopamine transmission patterns during acquisition of a cue-cocaine association in rats

Drug seeking is significantly regulated by drug-associated cues and associative learning between environmental cues and cocaine reward is mediated by dopamine transmission within the nucleus accumbens (NAc). However, dopamine transmission during early acquisition of a cue-cocaine association has never been assessed because of the technical difficulties associated with resolving cue-evoked and cocaine-evoked dopamine release within the same conditioning trial. Here, we used fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to measure sub-second fluctuations in dopamine concentration within the NAc core and shell during the initial acquisition of a cue-cocaine Pavlovian association. Within the NAc core, cue-evoked dopamine release developed during conditioning. However, within the NAc shell, the predictive cue appeared to cause an unconditioned decrease in dopamine concentration. The pharmacological effects of cocaine also differed between sub-regions, as cocaine increased phasic dopamine release events within the NAc shell but not the core. Thus, real-time measurements not only revealed the initial development of a conditioned neurochemical response but also demonstrated differential phasic dopamine transmission patterns across NAc sub-regions during the acquisition of a cue-cocaine association

Genetic inhibition of neurotransmission reveals role of glutamatergic input to dopamine neurons in high-effort behavior

Midbrain dopamine neurons are crucial for many behavioral and cognitive functions. As the major excitatory input, glutamatergic afferents are important for control of the activity and plasticity of dopamine neurons. However, the role of glutamatergic input as a whole onto dopamine neurons remains unclear. Here we developed a mouse line in which glutamatergic inputs onto dopamine neurons are specifically impaired, and utilized this genetic model to directly test the role of glutamatergic inputs in dopamine-related functions. We found that while motor coordination and reward learning were largely unchanged, these animals showed prominent deficits in effort-related behavioral tasks. These results provide genetic evidence that glutamatergic transmission onto dopaminergic neurons underlies incentive motivation, a willingness to exert high levels of effort to obtain reinforcers, and have important implications for understanding the normal function of the midbrain dopamine system.Fil: Hutchison, M. A.. National Institutes of Health; Estados UnidosFil: Gu, X.. National Institutes of Health; Estados UnidosFil: Adrover, Martín Federico. National Institutes of Health; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; ArgentinaFil: Lee, M. R.. National Institutes of Health; Estados UnidosFil: Hnasko, T. S.. University of California at San Diego; Estados UnidosFil: Alvarez, V. A.. National Institutes of Health; Estados UnidosFil: Lu, W.. National Institutes of Health; Estados Unido

On the Number of Zeros of Abelian Integrals: A Constructive Solution of the Infinitesimal Hilbert Sixteenth Problem

We prove that the number of limit cycles generated by a small non-conservative perturbation of a Hamiltonian polynomial vector field on the plane, is bounded by a double exponential of the degree of the fields. This solves the long-standing tangential Hilbert 16th problem. The proof uses only the fact that Abelian integrals of a given degree are horizontal sections of a regular flat meromorphic connection (Gauss-Manin connection) with a quasiunipotent monodromy group.Comment: Final revisio

Sources contributing to the average extracellular concentration of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens

Mesolimbic dopamine neurons fire in both tonic and phasic modes resulting in detectable extracellular levels of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). In the past, different techniques have targeted dopamine levels in the NAc to establish a basal concentration. In this study, we used in vivo fast scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) in the NAc of awake, freely moving rats. The experiments were primarily designed to capture changes in dopamine caused by phasic firing - that is, the measurement of dopamine 'transients'. These FSCV measurements revealed for the first time that spontaneous dopamine transients constitute a major component of extracellular dopamine levels in the NAc. A series of experiments were designed to probe regulation of extracellular dopamine. Lidocaine was infused into the ventral tegmental area, the site of dopamine cell bodies, to arrest neuronal firing. While there was virtually no instantaneous change in dopamine concentration, longer sampling revealed a decrease in dopamine transients and a time-averaged decrease in the extracellular level. Dopamine transporter inhibition using intravenous GBR12909 injections increased extracellular dopamine levels changing both frequency and size of dopamine transients in the NAc. To further unmask the mechanics governing extracellular dopamine levels we used intravenous injection of the vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT2) inhibitor, tetrabenazine, to deplete dopamine storage and increase cytoplasmic dopamine in the nerve terminals. Tetrabenazine almost abolished phasic dopamine release but increased extracellular dopamine to ~500 nM, presumably by inducing reverse transport by dopamine transporter (DAT). Taken together, data presented here show that average extracellular dopamine in the NAc is low (20-30 nM) and largely arises from phasic dopamine transients