Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States
Youngsoo Kim
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States
Aram Parsegian
Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States
Brittany N Kuhn
Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States
Sofia A Lopez
Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States
John F Neumaier
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
Susan M Ferguson
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
Leah C Solberg Woods
Department of Internal Medicine, Section on Molecular Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, United States
Martin Sarter
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States; Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States
Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States; Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States
Cues in the environment can elicit complex emotional states, and thereby maladaptive behavior, as a function of their ascribed value. Here we capture individual variation in the propensity to attribute motivational value to reward-cues using the sign-tracker/goal-tracker animal model. Goal-trackers attribute predictive value to reward-cues, and sign-trackers attribute both predictive and incentive value. Using chemogenetics and microdialysis, we show that, in sign-trackers, stimulation of the neuronal pathway from the prelimbic cortex (PrL) to the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) decreases the incentive value of a reward-cue. In contrast, in goal-trackers, inhibition of the PrL-PVT pathway increases both the incentive value and dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens shell. The PrL-PVT pathway, therefore, exerts top-down control over the dopamine-dependent process of incentive salience attribution. These results highlight PrL-PVT pathway as a potential target for treating psychopathologies associated with the attribution of excessive incentive value to reward-cues, including addiction.
