Description de la soumission d'un avis
What role does the nucleus accumbens play in goal selection?
This project will develop a new behavioral task in rats to investigate how nucleus accumbens neurons encode goal selection using freely moving electrophysiology
Motivated behaviors have overwhelmingly been investigated on animals seeking a single type of reward (food, water, drugs of abuse…). In natural environments, however, animals have to decide which resource to orient to in order to satisfy different needs. There are as many motivations as there are needs to satisfy, competing with each other. Ultimately, one of them, corresponding to a particular need (the selected goal), dominates the others and specific actions aiming toward to this goal are energized. With the ambition to go beyond classical experimental psychology and consider a more naturalistic approach to behavior, this project will use different types of reinforcers in the same experiments and study the processes underlying the choice of the goal to be reached.
The nucleus accumbens is undeniably involved in setting to the motivational level for a single need. Using freely-moving electrophysiology in behaving rats, this project will (1) develop a behavioral task where two natural reinforcers are in competitions and (2) test whether neurons in the nucleus accumbens can participate in the selection of the need to satisfy.
Sicre M, Meffre J, Louber D and Ambroggi F. The Nucleus Accumbens Core is necessary for responding to incentive but not instructive stimuli. The Journal of Neuroscience. 2020 Feb 5;40(6):1332-1343.
Meffre J, Sicre M, Diarra M, Marchessaux F, Paleressompoulle D and Ambroggi F. Orexin in the Posterior Paraventricular Thalamus Mediates Hunger-Related Signals in the Nucleus Accumbens Core. Curr Biol. 2019 Oct 7;29(19):3298-3306.e4.
The applicant should have a solid knowledge in integrative neuroscience and be motivated to work with behaving rats and perform brain surgeries.
The M2 internship will take place at the Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone. The intern will be supervised by Frederic Ambroggi (CoMCo team).