Neural correlate of relief in the anterior cingulate cortex and ventral tegmental area

Abstract

Information gained during goal pursuit motivates adaptive behaviour. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) supports adaptive behaviour, but how ACC signals are translated into motivational signals remains unclear. Rats implanted in the ACC and ventral tegmental area (VTA), a dopaminergic brain area implicated in motivation, were trained to run laps around a rectangular track for a fixed reward, where each lap varied in physical effort (a 30cm climbable barrier). Partial directed coherence analysis of local field potentials revealed that ACC theta (4-12 Hz) activity increased as rats entered the barrier-containing region of the maze on trials when the barrier was absent, and predicted similar changes in VTA theta. This did not occur on effortful, barrier-present trials. These data suggest that ACC provides a top-down modulating signal which can influence the motivation with which to pursue a reward, and which may be, in our task, a neural correlate of relief.