Abstract
Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) function is critical to decision making and behavior based on the value of expected outcomes. While some of the roles the OFC plays in value computations and behavior have been identified, the role of the OFC in modulating cognitive resources based on reward expectancy has not been explored. Here we assessed the involvement of OFC in the interaction between motivation and attention. We tested mice in a sustained-attention task in which explicitly signaling the probability of reward differentially modulates discrimination accuracy. Using pharmacogenetic methods, we generated mice in which neuronal activity in the OFC could be transiently and reversibly inhibited during performance of our signaled-probability task. We found that inhibiting OFC neuronal activity abolished the ability of reward-associated cues to differentially impact accuracy of sustained-attention performance. This failure to modulate attention occurred despite evidence that mice still processed the differential value of the reward-associated cues. These data indicate that OFC function is critical for the ability of a reward-related signal to impact other cognitive and decision-making processes and begin to delineate the neural circuitry involved in the interaction between motivation and attention.
Highlights
It is well known that knowledge of the value of a potentially-earned reward can impact performance in cognitive tasks
Pharmacogenetic Inhibition of Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) Function Abolishes the Impact of Reward-associated Cues on Attention Bilateral stereotaxic injection of either hM4D(Gi)-mCitrine or GFP expressing adeno-associated viruses resulted in expression of either hM4D(Gi) and mCitrine or GFP selectively in neurons due to the use of the human Synapsin1 promoter
There was no effect of viral injection [GFP vs. hM4D(Gi); F(1, 21) = 0.001, p = 0.981] or treatment [saline vs. CNO; F(1, 21) = 2.73, p = 0.114], and none of the interactions were significant. These results indicate that mice were less motivated to respond on low reward-probability trials, but OFC inhibition did not impact the proportion of omitted trials
Summary
It is well known that knowledge of the value of a potentially-earned reward can impact performance in cognitive tasks. The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is involved in the representation of reward as demonstrated in its critical role in value-based decision making (Schoenbaum et al, 2009). We asked if the OFC plays a role in the modulation of discrimination accuracy when explicit cues signal changes in the likelihood of reward. Altered performance under these conditions is thought to reflect differences in the topdown recruitment of attention to trial-specific stimuli (Corbetta and Shulman, 2002; Pessoa et al, 2003; Small et al, 2005; Pessoa and Engelmann, 2010)
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