Orbitofrontal Ensemble Activity Monitors Licking and Distinguishes Among Natural Rewards

In this study, we investigated the relationship between OFC activity and licking clusters by inactivating the OFC using muscimol, a GABA agonist, and by analyzing the activity of neuronal ensembles in the OFC obtained from freely licking rats. For the following reasons, we used chronic, multielectro...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Gutierrez, Ranier, Carmena Ramón, José Miguel, Nicolelis, Miguel A. L., Simon, S. A.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2006
País:España
Institución:Universidad Católica de Valencia San Vicente Mártir
Repositorio:RIUCV. Repositorio de la Universidad Católica de Valencia San Vicente Mártir
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:riucv.ucv.es:20.500.12466/7017
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12466/7017
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Orbitofrontal cortex
Orbitofrontal neurons
Licking clusters
Neuronal ensembles
Rats
32 Ciencias Médicas
Descripción
Sumario:In this study, we investigated the relationship between OFC activity and licking clusters by inactivating the OFC using muscimol, a GABA agonist, and by analyzing the activity of neuronal ensembles in the OFC obtained from freely licking rats. For the following reasons, we used chronic, multielectrode recording techniques to record from ensembles of OFC neurons. First, because licking involves the integration of chemosensory, motor and motivational responses, and neuronal ensemble recordings allow us to describe the full diversity of individual neuronal responses that occur simultaneously. Second, OFC neuronal ensembles offer a better alternative than single neuron recordings at predicting a behavioral event in a single trial basis (Cohen and Nicolelis 2004). A similar approach has been successfully used in the motor and somatosensory system (Carmena et al.2003; Costa et al. 2004; Foffani and Moxon 2004; Ghazanfar et al. 2000; Laubach et al. 2000; Narayanan et al. 2005; Wessberg et al. 2000). However, to our knowledge, only a few studies have reported the ensemble activity of orbitofrontal neurons (Schoenbaum and Eichenbaum 1995b).