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Distracting stimuli evoke ventral tegmental area responses in rats during ongoing saccharin consumption

View ORCID ProfileKate Z Peters, Andrew M J Young, View ORCID ProfileJames E McCutcheon
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.03.228452
Kate Z Peters
1Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
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Andrew M J Young
1Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
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James E McCutcheon
1Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
2Department of Psychology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
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  • For correspondence: j.mccutcheon@uit.no
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Abstract

Disruptions in attention, salience and increased distractibility are implicated in multiple psychiatric conditions. The ventral tegmental area (VTA) is a potential site for converging information about external stimuli and internal states to be integrated and guide adaptive behaviours. Given the dual role of dopamine signals in both driving ongoing behaviours (e.g. feeding) and monitoring salient environmental stimuli, understanding the interaction between these functions is crucial. Here we investigate VTA neuronal activity during distraction from ongoing feeding. We developed a task to assess distraction exploiting self-paced licking in rats. Rats trained to lick for saccharin were given a distraction test, in which three consecutive licks within 1 second triggered a random distractor (e.g. light and tone stimulus). On each trial they were quantified as distracted or not based on the length of their pauses in licking behaviour. We expressed GCaMP6s in VTA neurons and used fibre photometry to record calcium fluctuations during this task as a proxy for neuronal activity. Distractor stimuli caused rats to interrupt their consumption of saccharin, a behavioural effect which quickly habituated with repeat testing. VTA neural activity showed consistent increases to distractor presentations and, furthermore, these responses were greater on distracted trials compared to non-distracted trials. Interestingly, neural responses show a slower habituation than behaviour with consistent VTA responses seen to distractors even after they are no longer distracting. These data highlight the complex role of the VTA in maintaining ongoing appetitive and consummatory behaviours while also monitoring the environment for salient stimuli.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • https://doi.org/10.25392/leicester.data.12732734

  • https://github.com/mccutcheonlab/distraction-peters/releases/tag/v1.0

  • Abbreviations

    VTA
    Ventral tegmental area
    NAc
    Nucleus accumbens
    GABA
    Gamma aminobutyric acid
    ROC
    Receiver-operator characteristic
    GFP
    Green fluorescent protein
    PFA
    Paraformaldehyde
    PBS
    Phosphate buffered saline
  • Copyright 
    The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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    Posted August 04, 2020.
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    Distracting stimuli evoke ventral tegmental area responses in rats during ongoing saccharin consumption
    Kate Z Peters, Andrew M J Young, James E McCutcheon
    bioRxiv 2020.08.03.228452; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.03.228452
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    Distracting stimuli evoke ventral tegmental area responses in rats during ongoing saccharin consumption
    Kate Z Peters, Andrew M J Young, James E McCutcheon
    bioRxiv 2020.08.03.228452; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.03.228452

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