The entorhinal cortex-nucleus accumbens pathway and latent inhibition: a behavioral and neurochemical study in rats

Behav Neurosci. 2002 Feb;116(1):95-104. doi: 10.1037//0735-7044.116.1.95.

Abstract

Latent inhibition (LI) refers to the decrease in conditioned response produced by the repeated nonrein-forced preexposure to the to-be-conditioned stimulus. Experiment I investigated the effects of electrolytic lesions of the entorhinal cortex on LI in a conditioned emotional response procedure. Entorhinal cortex lesions attenuated LI. Experiments 2 and 3 investigated whether this attenuation of LI could result from a modification in nucleus accumbens (NAcc) dopamine (DA) release. Rats with entorhinal cortex lesions displayed normal spontaneous and amphetamine-induced locomotor activity, as well as normal basal and amphetamine-induced release of DA within the NAcc (assessed by microdialysis). Taken together, these results show that entorhinal cortex lesions disrupt LI in a way that is unlikely to be due to an alteration of DA release within the NAcc.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Arousal / physiology
  • Conditioning, Classical / physiology*
  • Dopamine / physiology*
  • Entorhinal Cortex / physiology*
  • Fear / physiology
  • Male
  • Mental Recall / physiology*
  • Motor Activity / physiology
  • Neural Inhibition / physiology*
  • Neural Pathways / physiology
  • Nucleus Accumbens / physiology*
  • Rats
  • Rats, Long-Evans

Substances

  • Dopamine