Prefrontal cortical regulation of brainwide circuit dynamics and reward-related behavior

Motivation for reward drives adaptive behaviors, whereas impairment of reward perception and experience (anhedonia) can contribute to psychiatric diseases, including depression and schizophrenia. We sought to test the hypothesis that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) controls interactions among specific subcortical regions that govern hedonic responses. By using optogenetic functional magnetic resonance imaging to locally manipulate but globally visualize neural activity in rats, we found that dopamine neuron stimulation drives striatal activity, whereas locally increased mPFC excitability reduces this striatal response and inhibits the behavioral drive for dopaminergic stimulation. This chronic mPFC…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• SF
  Simons Foundation
• HL
  H. L. Snyder Medical Foundation
• NA
  National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression
• CM
  Carl Marshall and Mildred Almen Reeves Foundation
• GC
  Gatsby Charitable Foundation
• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Awards: R00 MH097822, P41 EB015891
• DA
  Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
• NI
  National Institute of Mental Health
• NI
  National Institute on Drug Abuse

  Award: 1F31MH105151_01