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

• Main Authors: Neil Schwartz, Catriona Miller, Howard L. Fields
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2017-05-01
• Series: Cell Reports
• Subjects: approach-avoidance; pain; chronic pain; infralimbic; accumbens; ventral striatum; motivation; choice; vmPFC
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211124717306022

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.