Figure 1: Basolateral and central amygdala are both necessary to recruit dorsolateral striatum, dopamine-dependent, cocaine-seeking habits. | Nature Communications

Figure 1: Basolateral and central amygdala are both necessary to recruit dorsolateral striatum, dopamine-dependent, cocaine-seeking habits.

From: Basolateral and central amygdala differentially recruit and maintain dorsolateral striatum-dependent cocaine-seeking habits

Figure 1

Early-stage cocaine seeking was sensitive neither to bilateral aDLS infusion of α-flupenthixol (10 μg per side13,40,41) (n=15) (a, left panel) nor to BLA–aDLS (n=7) or CeN–aDLS (n=12) disconnections (b,c; left panel). Active lever responses in each group were impervious to these manipulations (main effect of group, dose, group × dose or lever × dose interaction: Fs1,20<1). When rats had an intermediate training history in cocaine seeking (a,b; middle panel) their responses increased significantly (lever × time interaction: F1,21=13.76 P<0.01, partial η2=0.39) and became slightly sensitive to both bilateral aDLS-dopamine receptor blockade (a) or BLA–aDLS disconnections (b) (main effect of group: F1,20=1.17, P=0.29; dose: F1,20=9.98, P<0.01, partial η2=0.33), selectively on active lever presses (lever × dose interaction: F1,20=4.59, P<0.01, partial η2=0.18). The CeN was not involved in this initial recruitment of aDLS-dopamine-dependent control over behaviour (main effect of lever: F1,11=31.59, P<0.001 partial η2=0.39; dose and dose × lever interaction: Fs<1) (c, middle panel). However, at a later stage of training, when cocaine seeking has become habitual, while BLA–aDLS-dopamine-dependent disconnection and bilateral aDLS-dopamine receptor blockade further dose-dependently reduced active lever presses (a,b; right panel) (46% decrease at the unit dose of 10 μg per side and up to 73% at 15 μg) (main effect of group: F1,20<1, lever: F1,20=56.69, P<0.01 partial η2=0.73; dose: F3,60=8.52, P<0.01, partial η2=0.29 and dose × lever interaction: F3,60=7.93, P<0.01, partial η2=0.28), CeN–aDLS disconnection resulted also in a dose-dependent decrease in active lever presses (main effect of dose: F3,33=4.24, P<0.05 partial η2=0.28 and dose × lever interaction: F3,33=4.24, P<0.05, partial η2=0.26). Inactive lever presses are represented in black. *P<0.05, **P<0.01 versus vehicle, Dunnet post hoc test.

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