Chemogenetic disconnection of monkey orbitofrontal and rhinal cortex reversibly disrupts reward value

• Published in: Nature neuroscience Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 37 - 39
• Main Authors: Eldridge, Mark A G, Lerchner, Walter, Saunders, Richard C, Kaneko, Hiroyuki, Krausz, Kristopher W, Gonzalez, Frank J, Ji, Bin, Higuchi, Makoto, Minamimoto, Takafumi, Richmond, Barry J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.01.2016; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 14/63; 42/109; 631/1647/338; 631/378/1788; 631/378/2649/1409; 631/378/2649/1662; 631/378/340; 96/44; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Animals; Behavior, Animal - physiology; Behavioral Sciences; Biological Techniques; Biomedicine; Brain mapping; Brain research; brief-communication; Central nervous system; Clozapine - analogs & derivatives; Design; Designer Drugs; Expected values; Female; Genetic Techniques; Genetic Vectors; Lentivirus; Macaca mulatta; Male; Medical examination; Mental Recall - physiology; Mice; Neurobiology; Neurosciences; Parahippocampal Gyrus - physiology; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Reward; Reward (Psychology); Temporal Lobe - physiology; Testing; Vectors (Biology); United States > US; Maryland
• ISSN: 1097-6256; 1546-1726; 1546-1726
• DOI: 10.1038/nn.4192

The authors used a reversible inactivation technique that has not been used before in Old World monkeys, inhibitory chemogenetic receptors (DREADDs), to demonstrate that disconnecting a large region of monkey prefrontal cortex (orbitofrontal cortex) from a region in the temporal lobe (rhinal cortex) reduces sensitivity to differences in reward size. To study how the interaction between orbitofrontal (OFC) and rhinal (Rh) cortices influences the judgment of reward size, we reversibly disconnected these regions using hM4Di-DREADD (designer receptor exclusively activated by designer drug). Repeated inactivation reduced sensitivity to differences in reward size in two monkeys. These results suggest that retrieval of relative stimulus values from memory depends on the interaction between Rh and OFC.