Timing-dependent limbic-motor synaptic integration in the nucleus accumbens

Yukiori Goto and
Patricio O'Donnell*

Center for Neuropharmacology and Neuroscience, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY 12208

Edited by Ann M. Graybiel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, and approved August 12, 2002 (received for review May 20, 2002)

Abstract

The nucleus accumbens is a brain region in which limbic and motor inputs converge. How these information modalities shape accumbens output is not clearly understood. Here, we report that synaptic inputs from the prefrontal cortex and limbic structures interact differently depending on their timing. Coincident inputs may result in enhancing information flow through the nucleus accumbens. Responses to asynchronous inputs are affected by their relative order of arrival, with limbic inputs allowing subsequent prefrontal responses, and prefrontal inputs dampening limbic responses. These mechanisms allow for both coincidence detection and input selection in this integrative brain region.

Footnotes

↵ * To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: odonnep{at}mail.amc.edu.
This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the PNAS office.
Abbreviations:

NAcc,

nucleus accumbens;

PFC,

prefrontal cortex;

BLA,

basolateral amygdala;

PV,

paraventricular nucleus of thalamus;

EPSP,

excitatory postsynaptic potential;

Cv,

coefficient of variation