| First Author | Smith ACW | Year | 2021 |
| Journal | Nat Commun | Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 5121 |
| PubMed ID | 34433818 | Mgi Jnum | J:349381 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6754039 | Doi | 10.1038/s41467-021-25460-3 |
| Citation | Smith ACW, et al. (2021) Opposing roles for striatonigral and striatopallidal neurons in dorsolateral striatum in consolidating new instrumental actions. Nat Commun 12(1):5121 |
| abstractText | Comparatively little is known about how new instrumental actions are encoded in the brain. Using whole-brain c-Fos mapping, we show that neural activity is increased in the anterior dorsolateral striatum (aDLS) of mice that successfully learn a new lever-press response to earn food rewards. Post-learning chemogenetic inhibition of aDLS disrupts consolidation of the new instrumental response. Similarly, post-learning infusion of the protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin into the aDLS disrupts consolidation of the new response. Activity of D1 receptor-expressing medium spiny neurons (D1-MSNs) increases and D2-MSNs activity decreases in the aDLS during consolidation. Chemogenetic inhibition of D1-MSNs in aDLS disrupts the consolidation process whereas D2-MSN inhibition strengthens consolidation but blocks the expression of previously learned habit-like responses. These findings suggest that D1-MSNs in the aDLS encode new instrumental actions whereas D2-MSNs oppose this new learning and instead promote expression of habitual actions. |
