Topic: cortico-striatal circuitry

Aversive events in our environment shape our behaviours. Instrumental behaviours are punished when an action results in an aversive event. Yet there are instances where behaviours appear inappropriately sensitive to potential threats. The neural underpinnings of these inappropriate behaviours are poorly understood. In a conditioned punishment task, we trained rats to press two levers for pellets. Their responding suppressed on one lever when it also earned a conditioned stimulus (CS+) that was paired with a footshock, whilst responding continued on the other lever that earned a neutral conditi

Kainate receptors are ionotropic glutamate receptors, involved in modulation of synaptic transmission in developing and adult brain. Genetic disruption of all five kainate receptor subunits reduces cortico-striatal synaptic connectivity and leads to OCD-related pathological behavior. The aim of the project is to evaluate if the OCD-like pathology arises due to the deficit in the development of cortico-striatal projections due to the lack of the kainate receptor subunit 1 (GluK1). We characterized the expression of GluK1 during the development of the cortico-striatal circuitry using immunohisto