Alternation behavior, spatial discrimination, and reversal disturbances following 6-hydroxydopamine lesions in the nucleus accumbens of the rat.

The effects of dopaminergic depletion of the nucleus accumbens was tested in various behavioral tasks such as alternation, spatial discrimination, and reversal learning, and in an extinction paradigm in a T maze. Animals with lesions showed impairment of spontaneous alternation behavior, disturbances in the acquisition of spatial discrimination, and great difficulty in reversing previously learned habits. In the extinction phase, experimental animals are unable to adjust their behavior, and continue to choose the previously reinforced arm of the T maze. It is suggested that the nucleus accumbens plays an important role in the transition of motivation into action, and that dopamine has a facilitatory influence on the mediation of these processes.

[1]  H. Fibiger,et al.  The dorsal tegmental noradrenergic projection: an analysis of its role in maze learning. , 1976, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[2]  W. Nauta,et al.  The amygdalostriatal projection in the rat—an anatomical study by anterograde and retrograde tracing methods , 1982, Neuroscience.

[3]  N. McNaughton,et al.  Comparison between the behavioural effects of septal and hippocampal lesions: A review , 1983, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

[4]  B. Kolb.  Dissociation of the effects of lesions of the orbital or medial aspect of the prefrontal cortex of the rat with respect to activity. , 1974, Behavioral biology.

[5]  H. Groenewegen,et al.  Subcortical afferents of the nucleus accumbens septi in the cat, studied with retrograde axonal transport of horseradish peroxidase and bisbenzimid , 1980, Neuroscience.

[6]  H. Simon,et al.  [Dopaminergic A10 neurons and frontal system (author's transl)]. , 1981, Journal de physiologie.

[7]  R. Dantzer,et al.  Differential effects of inescapable footshocks and of stimuli previously paired with inescapable footshocks on dopamine turnover in cortical and limbic areas of the rat. , 1982, Life sciences.

[8]  T. Robbins,et al.  Effects of 6-hydroxydopamine lesions of the nucleus accumbens septi and olfactory tubercle on feeding, locomotor activity, and amphetamine anorexia in the rat. , 1978, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[9]  M. Le Moal,et al.  Behavioral study after local injection of 6-hydroxydopamine into the nucleus accumbens in the rat , 1985, Brain Research.

[10]  G. Lynch.  Separable forebrain systems controlling different manifestations of spontaneous activity. , 1970, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[11]  S. S. Winans,et al.  An experimental study of the ventral striatum of the golden hamster. I. Neuronal connections of the nucleus accumbens , 1980, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[12]  R. Morris,et al.  The effects of central catecholamine depletions on spatial learning in rats , 1983, Behavioural Brain Research.

[13]  W. Nauta.  The problem of the frontal lobe: a reinterpretation. , 1971, Journal of psychiatric research.

[14]  M. Le Moal,et al.  Alternation behavior, spatial discrimination, and reversal after electrocoagulation of the ventral mesencephalic tegmentum in the rat. , 1979, Behavioral and neural biology.

[15]  G. J. Thomas.  Comparison of effects of small lesions in posterodorsal septum on spontaneous and rerun correction (contingently reinforced) alternation in rats. , 1979, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[16]  Douglas L. Jones,et al.  From motivation to action: Functional interface between the limbic system and the motor system , 1980, Progress in Neurobiology.

[17]  P. Bailey.  The neurobiology of the nucleus accumbens R. B. Chronister and J. F. de France (Eds). Haer Institute for Electrophysiological Research (1981). 388 pp , 1982, Neuroscience.