How Bad Do You Want It? Reward Modulation in the Avian Nidopallium Caudolaterale

The prefrontal cortex plays an important role in reward processing in humans and nonhuman primates. In the current study we examined reward modulation in the single cell activity of the avian analog of the prefrontal cortex, the nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL). Pigeons had to peck at stimuli that re...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioral neuroscience 2013-08, Vol.127 (4), p.544-554
Main Authors: Koenen, Charlotte, Millar, Jessica, Colombo, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal
Animal behavior
Animal Ethology
Animals
Brain
Cells
Choice Behavior
Columbidae
Neurons - physiology
Pigeons
Prefrontal Cortex
Prefrontal Cortex - physiology
Primates
Reward
Rewards
Stimulus Presentation Methods
Wildfowl
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The prefrontal cortex plays an important role in reward processing in humans and nonhuman primates. In the current study we examined reward modulation in the single cell activity of the avian analog of the prefrontal cortex, the nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL). Pigeons had to peck at stimuli that represented either no reward, a small reward, or a large reward in a no-choice condition (only one stimulus presented) or a choice condition (two stimuli presented simultaneously). Of the 92 recorded cells, 34 cells showed some form of reward modulation, either during the stimulus presentation or the delay activity preceding the delivery of reward in the no-choice or choice condition. Latencies to peck at the stimulus revealed that the differences in reward amount were behaviorally significant to the pigeons. Moreover, a majority of cells (approximately 70%) showed activity during the actual reward phase. Our results show that cells in the NCL modulate their response as a function of the amount of reward.
ISSN:0735-7044
1939-0084
DOI:10.1037/a0033551