Cortico-striatal action control inherent of opponent cognitive-motivational styles

Turning on cue or stopping at a red light requires attending to such cues to select action sequences, or suppress action, in accordance with learned cue-associated action rules. Cortico-striatal projections are an essential part of the brain’s attention–motor interface. Glutamate-sensing microelectr...

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Main Authors: Cassandra Avila, Martin Sarter
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: eLife Sciences Publications Ltd 2025-02-01
Series:eLife
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Online Access:https://elifesciences.org/articles/100988
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author Cassandra Avila
Martin Sarter
author_facet Cassandra Avila
Martin Sarter
author_sort Cassandra Avila
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description Turning on cue or stopping at a red light requires attending to such cues to select action sequences, or suppress action, in accordance with learned cue-associated action rules. Cortico-striatal projections are an essential part of the brain’s attention–motor interface. Glutamate-sensing microelectrode arrays were used to measure glutamate transients in the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) of male and female rats walking a treadmill and executing cued turns and stops. Prelimbic–DMS projections were chemogenetically inhibited to determine their behavioral necessity and the cortico-striatal origin of cue-evoked glutamate transients. Furthermore, we investigated rats exhibiting preferably goal-directed (goal trackers, GTs) versus cue-driven attention (sign-trackers, STs), to determine the impact of such cognitive-motivational biases on cortico-striatal control. GTs executed more cued turns and initiated such turns more slowly than STs. During turns, but not missed turns or cued stops, cue-evoked glutamate concentrations were higher in GTs than in STs. In STs, turn cue-locked glutamate concentrations frequently peaked twice or three times, contrasting with predominately single peaks in GTs. In GTs, but not STs, inhibition of prelimbic–DMS projections attenuated turn rates and turn cue-evoked glutamate concentrations and increased the number of turn cue-locked glutamate peaks. These findings indicate that turn cue-evoked glutamate release in GTs is tightly controlled by cortico-striatal neuronal activity. In contrast, in STs, glutamate release from DMS glutamatergic terminals may be regulated by other striatal circuitry, preferably mediating cued suppression of action and reward tracking. As cortico-striatal dysfunction has been hypothesized to contribute to a wide range of disorders, including complex movement control deficits in Parkinson’s disease and compulsive drug taking, the demonstration of phenotypic contrasts in cortico-striatal control implies the presence of individual vulnerabilities for such disorders.
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spelling doaj-art-abd0259db2b4435294b598da95d0cc862025-08-20T03:11:45ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2025-02-011310.7554/eLife.100988Cortico-striatal action control inherent of opponent cognitive-motivational stylesCassandra Avila0Martin Sarter1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0441-9936Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United StatesDepartment of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States; Department of Psychology & Neuroscience Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United StatesTurning on cue or stopping at a red light requires attending to such cues to select action sequences, or suppress action, in accordance with learned cue-associated action rules. Cortico-striatal projections are an essential part of the brain’s attention–motor interface. Glutamate-sensing microelectrode arrays were used to measure glutamate transients in the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) of male and female rats walking a treadmill and executing cued turns and stops. Prelimbic–DMS projections were chemogenetically inhibited to determine their behavioral necessity and the cortico-striatal origin of cue-evoked glutamate transients. Furthermore, we investigated rats exhibiting preferably goal-directed (goal trackers, GTs) versus cue-driven attention (sign-trackers, STs), to determine the impact of such cognitive-motivational biases on cortico-striatal control. GTs executed more cued turns and initiated such turns more slowly than STs. During turns, but not missed turns or cued stops, cue-evoked glutamate concentrations were higher in GTs than in STs. In STs, turn cue-locked glutamate concentrations frequently peaked twice or three times, contrasting with predominately single peaks in GTs. In GTs, but not STs, inhibition of prelimbic–DMS projections attenuated turn rates and turn cue-evoked glutamate concentrations and increased the number of turn cue-locked glutamate peaks. These findings indicate that turn cue-evoked glutamate release in GTs is tightly controlled by cortico-striatal neuronal activity. In contrast, in STs, glutamate release from DMS glutamatergic terminals may be regulated by other striatal circuitry, preferably mediating cued suppression of action and reward tracking. As cortico-striatal dysfunction has been hypothesized to contribute to a wide range of disorders, including complex movement control deficits in Parkinson’s disease and compulsive drug taking, the demonstration of phenotypic contrasts in cortico-striatal control implies the presence of individual vulnerabilities for such disorders.https://elifesciences.org/articles/100988striatumglutamateprelimbic cortexelectrochemistrycued movementssign-trackers
spellingShingle Cassandra Avila
Martin Sarter
Cortico-striatal action control inherent of opponent cognitive-motivational styles
eLife
striatum
glutamate
prelimbic cortex
electrochemistry
cued movements
sign-trackers
title Cortico-striatal action control inherent of opponent cognitive-motivational styles
title_full Cortico-striatal action control inherent of opponent cognitive-motivational styles
title_fullStr Cortico-striatal action control inherent of opponent cognitive-motivational styles
title_full_unstemmed Cortico-striatal action control inherent of opponent cognitive-motivational styles
title_short Cortico-striatal action control inherent of opponent cognitive-motivational styles
title_sort cortico striatal action control inherent of opponent cognitive motivational styles
topic striatum
glutamate
prelimbic cortex
electrochemistry
cued movements
sign-trackers
url https://elifesciences.org/articles/100988
work_keys_str_mv AT cassandraavila corticostriatalactioncontrolinherentofopponentcognitivemotivationalstyles
AT martinsarter corticostriatalactioncontrolinherentofopponentcognitivemotivationalstyles