ナカムラ カエ   NAKAMURA KAE
  中村 加枝
   所属   関西医科大学  生理学講座
   職種   教授
言語種別 日本語
発表タイトル Reward-dependent modulation of neuronal activity in the primate ventral striatum.
会議名 第32回 日本神経科学学会
学会区分 全国規模の学会
発表形式 ポスター掲示
講演区分 一般
発表者・共同発表者◎Matsuzaki R, Nakao K, Nakamura K
発表年月日 2009/09
開催地
(都市, 国名)
名古屋
概要 The ventral striatum (VS), including the nucleus accumbens, is a key element of the brain's reward circuitry. To study the specific role of the VS in reward-seeking behavior, we recorded single-neuron activity in the VS while a monkey performed saccade tasks in which the target position (left or right) indicated the size of an upcoming reward (0.01 vs. 0.5ml). We found that majority of task-related VS neurons (n=174/188) exhibited long-lasting (often >1s), tonic modulation in activity after reward delivery. Neurons showing stronger activity for small- than large- rewards were more prevalent than neurons showing stronger activity for large rewards. Some small-reward preferring neurons also exhibited enhanced activity after performance errors such as fixation break. The findings are in strong contrast to the dorsal striatum which showed increase in activity before the onset of saccade target, usually with stronger activity when the contralateral position is associated with reward. These results suggest that the VS is involved in evaluation of outcomes, either appetitive or aversive.