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

• DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2017.04.073
• Publication Date: 2017-05-23T14:02:48Z
• Authors: Neil Schwartz; Catriona Miller; Howard L. Fields
• Keywords: QH301-705.5; Medical Physiology; infralimbic; Nucleus Accumbens; Substance Misuse; 03 medical and health sciences; vmPFC; 0302 clinical medicine; motivation; Reward; ventral striatum; Avoidance Learning; Animals; pain; Biology (General); choice; Cerebral Cortex; Behavior; Behavior, Animal; Animal; Pain Research; Neurosciences; Biological Sciences; accumbens; Biological sciences; Good Health and Well Being; Neurological; Biochemistry and Cell Biology; Chronic Pain; Cues; Drug Abuse (NIDA only); chronic pain; approach-avoidance

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.