The infralimbic cortical area commands the behavioral and vegetative arousal during appetitive behavior in the rat

The infralimbic cortical area is a good candidate to send processed motivational signals to initiate the arousing and autonomic responses that characterize appetitive behaviors. To test this hypothesis we enticed hungry rats with food while assessing locomotion (as an index of arousal level) and tem...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The European journal of neuroscience 2006-03, Vol.23 (5), p.1352-1364
Main Authors: Valdés, José Luis, Maldonado, Pedro, Recabarren, Mónica, Fuentes, Rómulo, Torrealba, Fernando
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Appetitive Behavior - physiology
arousal
Arousal - physiology
Behavior, Animal - physiology
Body Temperature
Brodmann area 25
Electrophysiology
Feeding Behavior - physiology
histamine
Limbic System - anatomy & histology
Limbic System - pathology
Limbic System - physiology
Male
Motor Activity - physiology
Neurons - cytology
Neurons - metabolism
prefrontal cortex
Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos - genetics
Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos - metabolism
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
temperature
tuberomammillary nucleus
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Summary:The infralimbic cortical area is a good candidate to send processed motivational signals to initiate the arousing and autonomic responses that characterize appetitive behaviors. To test this hypothesis we enticed hungry rats with food while assessing locomotion (as an index of arousal level) and temperature responses, and evaluated Fos immunoreactivity (IR) in the infralimbic area and in subcortical nuclei involved in thermoregulation or arousal. We also recorded from single infralimbic neurons in freely moving rats while enticing them with food. We found that 83% of infralimbic neurons were excited or inhibited by feeding and, in particular, that 33% of infralimbic neurons increased their discharge rate during food enticing. Intact rats showed increased Fos IR in the infralimbic area, as well as in many other cortical areas. The excitotoxic lesion of the infralimbic cortex abolished the arousing and hyperthermic responses observed in intact rats, as well as the expression of Fos IR in the ascending arousal system and subcortical thermoregulatory regions. We conclude that the infralimbic area plays a central role in implementing behavioral arousing and thermal responses during an appetitive behavior.
ISSN:0953-816X
1460-9568
DOI:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2006.04659.x