# Multimodal Sensory Integration in Orbitofrontal Cortex during Natural Reward Seeking

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2024 · $31,311

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Perception of rewards is highly dependent on the exact reward seeking context. This suggests that discrete
elements of the context may directly influence reward subjective value via multisensory integration, which is
important because higher-value rewards can drive increased reward learning and seeking. An understanding of
how multimodal stimuli modulate reward subjective value and inform reward learning is incomplete without
determining how and where these stimuli are processed in the brain. Ensembles in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)
have been previously reported to be co-responsive to unique taste/smell pairs, but the stability of this
representation over time and direct connection to primary sensory input has not been assessed. The purpose of
this project is to determine how multisensory integration of discrete environmental stimuli paired with primary
rewards impacts associative learning for reward seeking and to gain a functional understanding of multisensory
encoding in the OFC at the single cell level. It is vital to first address this question with natural reward circuitry
to gain a full understanding of the basic neurobiology that is maladapted during addiction. As such, this project
will utilize a tastant reward and an environmental olfactory stimulus, a combination that has previously been
reported to enhance tastant value in human studies. I hypothesize that multisensory integration of environmental
stimuli and rewards will increase reward subjective value, expedite the rate of associative learning, and enhance
reward seeking. Additionally, I predict that the same OFC ensembles will be consistently activated to
multisensory, reward-relevant stimuli and that this activity utilizes direct input from primary sensory cortices.
In this project, Aim 1 will address how the multimodal integration of environmental stimuli (odor) with a primary
reward (tastant) impacts the rate of learning for reward seeking in a single-day learning task, while assessing
reward value using a novel palatability metric. Aim 2 will address the stability and direct connection to primary
sensory input of ensembles in the OFC for the multimodal taste/smell stimulus using simultaneous two-photon
calcium imaging and optogenetics. Together, these aims will establish the contribution of the integration of
discrete environmental stimuli with cued reward to drive learning for reward seeking and provide an
understanding of the neural circuitry that may underlie this phenomenon. The results of this project will lay a vital
groundwork for future projects to assess how the circuitry that integrates discrete environmental and reward
stimuli is coopted during addiction to perpetuate drug seeking during addiction and relapse.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10806178
- **Project number:** 5F31DA053706-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Madelyn Hjort
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $31,311
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-04-01 → 2024-09-15

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10806178

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10806178, Multimodal Sensory Integration in Orbitofrontal Cortex during Natural Reward Seeking (5F31DA053706-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10806178. Licensed CC0.

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