Fig. 7: Blocking of cholinergic transmission in the dorsal striatum impairs habitual action control.
From: Cholinergic midbrain afferents modulate striatal circuits and shape encoding of action strategies
a Lever pressing during acquisition of habitual behavior shows no significant differences between groups (two-way ANOVA group × day: Fgroup(4,359) = 2.30, P = 0.0581, Fday(7,359)=0.98, P = 0.4437; Finteraction(28,359)=0.36, P = 0.9991; n = 46). b Number of presses and normalized lever presses during outcome devaluation testing across valued (val, blue) or devalued (dev, red) states in random interval schedule (RI; habitual) in control animals. Neither the number of presses (mixed ANOVA: Fgroup (3,16) = 1.16, P = 0.355; Fsession(1,16) = 0.16, P = 0.6957; Finteraction(3,16) = 0.80, P = 0.5124) nor the normalized lever presses (mixed ANOVA group × session: Fsession(1,16) = 0.001, P = 0.9846, Finteraction(3,16) = 0.1, P = 0.9576) showed significant differences. Control groups were then pooled into one single group. c–f ChAT::Cre animals were injected in the DLS c, PPN d, DMS e or LDT f. During RI, there were no differences in the number of presses (mixed ANOVA: groups × session [valued vs. devalued], Fgroup(4,45) = 0.951, P = 0.444, Fsession(1,45) = 0.73, P = 0.3975, Finteraction(4,45) = 2.31, P = 0.0719) but there was a significant interaction in the normalized number of presses (mixed ANOVA groups × session: Fsession(1,45) = 4.10, P = 0.0488; Finteraction(4,45) = 3.0, P = 0.0282). Post hoc comparisons show a significant devaluation in DLS and PPN groups (see text for values), but not in the rest of the groups, suggesting that inhibition of PPN and DLS CINs axons prevents animals from developing habitual learning. Individual data points and mean ± SEM are shown. *P < 0.05. All experiments have been replicated at least three times.
