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Nepomoceno EB, Rodrigues S, de Melo KS, Ferreira TL, Freestone D, Caetano MS. Insular and prelimbic cortices control behavioral accuracy and precision in a temporal decision-making task in rats. Behav Brain Res 2024; 465:114961. [PMID: 38494127 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2024.114961] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2024] [Revised: 03/02/2024] [Accepted: 03/15/2024] [Indexed: 03/19/2024]
Abstract
The anterior insular cortex (AIC) comprises a region of sensory integration. It appears to detect salient events in order to guide goal-directed behavior, code tracking errors, and estimate the passage of time. Temporal processing in the AIC may be instantiated by the integration of representations of interoception. Projections between the AIC and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) - found both in rats and humans - also suggest a possible role for these structures in the integration of autonomic responses during ongoing behavior. Few studies, however, have investigated the role of AIC and mPFC in decision-making and time estimation tasks. Moreover, their findings are not consistent, so the relationship between temporal decision-making and those areas remains unclear. The present study employed bilateral inactivations to explore the role of AIC and prelimbic cortex (PL) in rats during a temporal decision-making task. In this task, two levers are available simultaneously (but only one is active), one predicting reinforcement after a short, and the other after a long-fixed interval. Optimal performance requires a switch from the short to the long lever after the short-fixed interval elapsed and no reinforcement was delivered. Switch behavior from the short to the long lever was dependent on AIC and PL. During AIC inactivation, switch latencies became more variable, while during PL inactivation switch latencies became both more variable and less accurate. These findings point to a dissociation between AIC and PL in temporal decision-making, suggesting that the AIC is important for temporal precision, and PL is important for both temporal accuracy and precision.
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Affiliation(s)
- Estela B Nepomoceno
- Center for Mathematics, Computing and Cognition, Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC), Brazil; Neuropsychology laboratory, Universidade Municipal de São Caetano do Sul (USCS), Brazil.
| | - Samanta Rodrigues
- Center for Mathematics, Computing and Cognition, Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC), Brazil; Department of Pharmacology, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), Brazil
| | - Katia S de Melo
- Center for Mathematics, Computing and Cognition, Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC), Brazil
| | - Tatiana L Ferreira
- Center for Mathematics, Computing and Cognition, Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC), Brazil
| | | | - Marcelo S Caetano
- Center for Mathematics, Computing and Cognition, Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC), Brazil; Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia sobre Comportamento, Cognição e Ensino (INCT-ECCE), Brazil
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Arif Y, Wiesman AI, Christopher-Hayes N, Okelberry HJ, Johnson HJ, Willett MP, Wilson TW. Altered age-related alpha and gamma prefrontal-occipital connectivity serving distinct cognitive interference variants. Neuroimage 2023; 280:120351. [PMID: 37659656 PMCID: PMC10545948 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120351] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2023] [Revised: 08/16/2023] [Accepted: 08/25/2023] [Indexed: 09/04/2023] Open
Abstract
The presence of conflicting stimuli adversely affects behavioral outcomes, which could either be at the level of stimulus (Flanker), response (Simon), or both (Multisource). Briefly, flanker interference involves conflicting stimuli requiring selective attention, Simon interference is caused by an incongruity between the spatial location of the task-relevant stimulus and prepotent motor mapping, and multisource is combination of both. Irrespective of the variant, interference resolution necessitates cognitive control to filter irrelevant information and allocate neural resources to task-related goals. Though previously studied in healthy young adults, the direct quantification of changes in oscillatory activity serving such cognitive control and associated inter-regional interactions in healthy aging are poorly understood. Herein, we used an adapted version of the multisource interference task and magnetoencephalography to investigate age-related alterations in the neural dynamics governing both divergent and convergent cognitive interference in 78 healthy participants (age range: 20-66 years). We identified weaker alpha connectivity between bilateral visual and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (DLPFC) and left dorsomedial prefrontal cortices (dmPFC), as well as weaker gamma connectivity between bilateral occipital regions and the right dmPFC during flanker interference with advancing age. Further, an age-related decrease in gamma power was observed in the left cerebellum and parietal region for Simon and differential interference effects (i.e., flanker-Simon), respectively. Moreover, the superadditivity model showed decreased gamma power in the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) with increasing age. Overall, our findings suggest age-related declines in the engagement of top-down attentional control secondary to reduced alpha and gamma coupling between prefrontal and occipital cortices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yasra Arif
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, USA.
| | - Alex I Wiesman
- Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | | | - Hannah J Okelberry
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, USA
| | - Hallie J Johnson
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, USA
| | - Madelyn P Willett
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, USA
| | - Tony W Wilson
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, USA; Department of Pharmacology & Neuroscience, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA
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Anderson MC, Floresco SB. Prefrontal-hippocampal interactions supporting the extinction of emotional memories: the retrieval stopping model. Neuropsychopharmacology 2022; 47:180-195. [PMID: 34446831 PMCID: PMC8616908 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-021-01131-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2021] [Revised: 07/21/2021] [Accepted: 07/22/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Neuroimaging has revealed robust interactions between the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus when people stop memory retrieval. Efforts to stop retrieval can arise when people encounter reminders to unpleasant thoughts they prefer not to think about. Retrieval stopping suppresses hippocampal and amygdala activity, especially when cues elicit aversive memory intrusions, via a broad inhibitory control capacity enabling prepotent response suppression. Repeated retrieval stopping reduces intrusions of unpleasant memories and diminishes their affective tone, outcomes resembling those achieved by the extinction of conditioned emotional responses. Despite this resemblance, the role of inhibitory fronto-hippocampal interactions and retrieval stopping broadly in extinction has received little attention. Here we integrate human and animal research on extinction and retrieval stopping. We argue that reconceptualising extinction to integrate mnemonic inhibitory control with learning would yield a greater understanding of extinction's relevance to mental health. We hypothesize that fear extinction spontaneously engages retrieval stopping across species, and that controlled suppression of hippocampal and amygdala activity by the prefrontal cortex reduces fearful thoughts. Moreover, we argue that retrieval stopping recruits extinction circuitry to achieve affect regulation, linking extinction to how humans cope with intrusive thoughts. We discuss novel hypotheses derived from this theoretical synthesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael C Anderson
- MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
- Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
| | - Stan B Floresco
- Department of Psychology, and Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
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Arkell D, Groves I, Wood ER, Hardt O. The Black Box effect: sensory stimulation after learning interferes with the retention of long-term object location memory in rats. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2021; 28:390-399. [PMID: 34526383 PMCID: PMC8456983 DOI: 10.1101/lm.053256.120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2020] [Accepted: 07/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Reducing sensory experiences during the period that immediately follows learning improves long-term memory retention in healthy humans, and even preserves memory in patients with amnesia. To date, it is entirely unclear why this is the case, and identifying the neurobiological mechanisms underpinning this effect requires suitable animal models, which are currently lacking. Here, we describe a straightforward experimental procedure in rats that future studies can use to directly address this issue. Using this method, we replicated the central findings on quiet wakefulness obtained in humans: We show that rats that spent 1 h alone in a familiar dark and quiet chamber (the Black Box) after exploring two objects in an open field expressed long-term memory for the object locations 6 h later, while rats that instead directly went back into their home cage with their cage mates did not. We discovered that both visual stimulation and being together with conspecifics contributed to the memory loss in the home cage, as exposing rats either to light or to a cage mate in the Black Box was sufficient to disrupt memory for object locations. Our results suggest that in both rats and humans, everyday sensory experiences that normally follow learning in natural settings can interfere with processes that promote long-term memory retention, thereby causing forgetting in form of retroactive interference. The processes involved in this effect are not sleep-dependent because we prevented sleep in periods of reduced sensory experience. Our findings, which also have implications for research practices, describe a potentially useful method to study the neurobiological mechanisms that might explain why normal sensory processing after learning impairs memory both in healthy humans and in patients suffering from amnesia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daisy Arkell
- Centre for Discovery Brain Science, School of Medicine, The University of Edinburgh, Edingurgh, Scotland EH8 9XD, United Kingdom.,The Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain, The Patrick Wild Centre, The University of Edinburgh, Edingurgh, Scotland EH8 9XD, United Kingdom
| | - Isabelle Groves
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec H3A 1G1, Canada
| | - Emma R Wood
- Centre for Discovery Brain Science, School of Medicine, The University of Edinburgh, Edingurgh, Scotland EH8 9XD, United Kingdom.,The Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain, The Patrick Wild Centre, The University of Edinburgh, Edingurgh, Scotland EH8 9XD, United Kingdom
| | - Oliver Hardt
- Centre for Discovery Brain Science, School of Medicine, The University of Edinburgh, Edingurgh, Scotland EH8 9XD, United Kingdom.,The Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain, The Patrick Wild Centre, The University of Edinburgh, Edingurgh, Scotland EH8 9XD, United Kingdom.,Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec H3A 1G1, Canada
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Johnson SA, Zequeira S, Turner SM, Maurer AP, Bizon JL, Burke SN. Rodent mnemonic similarity task performance requires the prefrontal cortex. Hippocampus 2021; 31:701-716. [PMID: 33606338 PMCID: PMC9343235 DOI: 10.1002/hipo.23316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2020] [Revised: 01/01/2021] [Accepted: 01/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2023]
Abstract
Mnemonic similarity task performance, in which a known target stimulus must be distinguished from similar lures, is supported by the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex. Impairments on this task are known to manifest with advancing age. Interestingly, disrupting hippocampal activity leads to mnemonic discrimination impairments when lures are novel, but not when they are familiar. This observation suggests that other brain structures support discrimination abilities as stimuli are learned. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is critical for retrieval of remote events and executive functions, such as working memory, and is also particularly vulnerable to dysfunction in aging. Importantly, the medial PFC is reciprocally connected to the perirhinal cortex and neuron firing in this region coordinates communication between lateral entorhinal and perirhinal cortices to presumably modulate hippocampal activity. This anatomical organization and function of the medial PFC suggests that it contributes to mnemonic discrimination; however, this notion has not been empirically tested. In the current study, rats were trained on a LEGO object-based mnemonic similarity task adapted for rodents, and surgically implanted with guide cannulae targeting prelimbic and infralimbic regions of the medial PFC. Prior to mnemonic discrimination tests, rats received PFC infusions of the GABAA agonist muscimol. Analyses of expression of the neuronal activity-dependent immediate-early gene Arc in medial PFC and adjacent cortical regions confirmed muscimol infusions led to neuronal inactivation in the infralimbic and prelimbic cortices. Moreover, muscimol infusions in PFC impaired mnemonic discrimination performance relative to the vehicle control across all testing blocks when lures shared 50-90% feature overlap with the target. Thus, in contrast hippocampal infusions, PFC inactivation impaired target-lure discrimination regardless of the novelty or familiarity of the lures. These findings indicate the PFC plays a critical role in mnemonic similarity task performance, but the time course of PFC involvement is dissociable from that of the hippocampus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah A. Johnson
- Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute, Gainesville, Florida
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
| | - Sabrina Zequeira
- Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute, Gainesville, Florida
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
| | - Sean M. Turner
- Department of Clinical Health Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
| | - Andrew P. Maurer
- Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute, Gainesville, Florida
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
| | - Jennifer L. Bizon
- Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute, Gainesville, Florida
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
| | - Sara N. Burke
- Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute, Gainesville, Florida
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
- Institute on Aging, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
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Avigan PD, Cammack K, Shapiro ML. Flexible spatial learning requires both the dorsal and ventral hippocampus and their functional interactions with the prefrontal cortex. Hippocampus 2020; 30:733-744. [PMID: 32077554 PMCID: PMC7731996 DOI: 10.1002/hipo.23198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2019] [Revised: 01/29/2020] [Accepted: 01/31/2020] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
When faced with changing contingencies, animals can use memory to flexibly guide actions, engaging both frontal and temporal lobe brain structures. Damage to the hippocampus (HPC) impairs episodic memory, and damage to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) impairs cognitive flexibility, but the circuit mechanisms by which these areas support flexible memory processing remain unclear. The present study investigated these mechanisms by temporarily inactivating the medial PFC (mPFC), the dorsal HPC (dHPC), and the ventral HPC (vHPC), individually and in combination, as rats learned spatial discriminations and reversals in a plus maze. Bilateral inactivation of either the dHPC or vHPC profoundly impaired spatial learning and memory, whereas bilateral mPFC inactivation primarily impaired reversal versus discrimination learning. Inactivation of unilateral mPFC together with the contralateral dHPC or vHPC impaired spatial discrimination and reversal learning, whereas ipsilateral inactivation did not. Flexible spatial learning thus depends on both the dHPC and vHPC and their functional interactions with the mPFC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip D. Avigan
- Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York
| | - Katharine Cammack
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience Program, The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee
| | - Matthew L. Shapiro
- Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York
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Gardner RS, Newman LA, Mohler EG, Tunur T, Gold PE, Korol DL. Aging is not equal across memory systems. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2020; 172:107232. [PMID: 32315762 DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2020.107232] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2019] [Revised: 02/10/2020] [Accepted: 04/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
The present experiments compared the effects of aging on learning several hippocampus- and striatum-sensitive tasks in young (3-4 month) and old (24-28 month) male Fischer-344 rats. Across three sets of tasks, aging was accompanied not only by deficits on hippocampal tasks but also by maintained or even enhanced abilities on striatal tasks. On two novel object recognition tasks, rats showed impaired performance on a hippocampal object location task but enhanced performance on a striatal object replacement task. On a dual solution task, young rats predominately used hippocampal solutions and old rats used striatal solutions. In addition, on two maze tasks optimally solved using either hippocampus-sensitive place or striatum-sensitive response strategies, relative to young rats, old rats had impaired learning on the place version but equivalent learning on the response version. Because glucose treatments can reverse deficits in learning and memory across many tasks and contexts, levels of available glucose in the brain may have particular importance in cognitive aging observed across tasks and memory systems. During place learning, training-related rises in extracellular glucose levels were attenuated in the hippocampus of old rats compared to young rats. In contrast, glucose levels in the striatum increased comparably in young and old rats trained on either the place or response task. These extracellular brain glucose responses to training paralleled the impairment in hippocampus-sensitive learning and the sparing of striatum-sensitive learning seen as rats age, suggesting a link between age-related changes in learning and metabolic substrate availability in these brain regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- R S Gardner
- Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, United States.
| | - L A Newman
- Department of Psychological Science, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604, United States
| | - E G Mohler
- Research and Development, AbbVie, North Chicago, IL 60064, United States
| | - T Tunur
- Department of Kinesiology, California State University San Marcos, San Marcos, CA 92096, United States
| | - P E Gold
- Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, United States
| | - D L Korol
- Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, United States.
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