Event Abstract Back to Event Involvement of specific neuronal populations of basal ganglia in decision-making Elena Chaves Rodriguez1, 2*, Serge N. Schiffmann1, 2 and Alban De Kerchove D'Exaerde1, 2, 3 1 FNRS-Belgium, Belgium 2 Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium 3 WELBIO, Belgium The basal ganglia are a group of brain nuclei involved in decision-making processes. They receive major cortical inputs, as well as important dopaminergic projections, linking cognitive and emotional processes to an individual’s motor output. Using specific-Cre transgenic mouse lines that allowed us to target specific populations of neurons in the basal ganglia, we succeeded to manipulate their activity by means of a chemogenetic -DREADD- approach. This DREADD technology permitted us to express a human modified Gq-coupled muscarinic receptor in the neurons of interest, whose activation was dependent on the administration of an artificial ligand (CNO). Using this tool we could induce an activation of the targeted neurons, whose consequences were analyzed with a battery of behavioral tests in order to assess any motor alteration or decision-making deficit. Keywords: decision-making, Basal Ganglia, chemogenetics, Behavior, mouse models Conference: 12th National Congress of the Belgian Society for Neuroscience, Gent, Belgium, 22 May - 22 May, 2017. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Cognition and Behavior Citation: Chaves Rodriguez E, Schiffmann SN and De Kerchove D'Exaerde A (2019). Involvement of specific neuronal populations of basal ganglia in decision-making. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: 12th National Congress of the Belgian Society for Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2017.94.00087 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 21 Apr 2017; Published Online: 25 Jan 2019. * Correspondence: Miss. Elena Chaves Rodriguez, FNRS-Belgium, Brussels, Belgium, echavesr@ulb.ac.be Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Elena Chaves Rodriguez Serge N Schiffmann Alban De Kerchove D'Exaerde Google Elena Chaves Rodriguez Serge N Schiffmann Alban De Kerchove D'Exaerde Google Scholar Elena Chaves Rodriguez Serge N Schiffmann Alban De Kerchove D'Exaerde PubMed Elena Chaves Rodriguez Serge N Schiffmann Alban De Kerchove D'Exaerde Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.