Seminar · Behavioral Neuroscience
Dissecting the role of accumbal D1 and D2 medium spiny neurons in information encoding
Munir Gunes Kutlu · Calipari Lab, Vanderbilt University
Wed, Feb 9, 2022 · 17:00 UTC
Nearly all motivated behaviors require the ability to associate outcomes with specific actions and make adaptive decisions about future behavior. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is integrally involved in these processes. The NAc is a heterogeneous population primarily composed of D1 and D2 medium spiny projection (MSN) neurons that are thought to have opposed roles in behavior, with D1 MSNs promoting reward and D2 MSNs promoting aversion. Here we examined what types of information are encoded by the D1 and D2 MSNs using optogenetics, fiber photometry, and cellular resolution calcium imaging. First