# Ventral pallidum activity links motivationally attractive cues together for sign-tracked behavior

> **NIH NIH F31** · DARTMOUTH COLLEGE · 2020 · $34,267

## Abstract

Project Summary
 The ventral pallidum (VP) is a diversely interconnected structure with major inputs from cortical, limbic, and
brainstem areas. Studies show the VP is necessary for reward learning and performance, motivation, and
hedonic functioning. Despite its clinical relevance serving as arguably one of the most crucial sites for reward
and motivation in the brain, how neurons in the VP encode motivational signals remains far from resolved.
 A dysregulation of reward and motivation, particularly in the domain of heightened reward cue-reactivity, is
thought to serve as a major factor in substance abuse disorders. One model for examining brain mechanisms
in animals is motivational attraction to cues that are paired with reward seen in autoshaping, often called sign-
tracking. Sign-tracking animals will heavily interact with a stimulus which predicts a reward outcome, even
though their response does not affect the delivery of the reward. Sign-tracking animals share similar behavioral
and neurobiological responses to those evoked by addictive drugs. Critically, the vast majority of autoshaping
paradigms use only a single cue to predict reward, while it is more common in the real world that a series of
cues predict a rewarding outcome (i.e., a grinder and rolling papers precede the creation of a joint). My
previous work used a Sequential Lever Pavlovian Conditioning Paradigm (SLPCP), where lever cues were
inserted in temporal sequence prior to reward delivery (distal lever à proximal lever à reward delivery). I was
able to show that cues that occur temporally distal to reward will gain greater sign-tracking interactions than
temporally proximal cues over sessions (i.e., a distal lever bias), suggesting that distal cues carry more
motivational draw. Further, I found evidence that these cues form a representational link with one another;
removing the value of one cue (via extinction procedures) immediately updates the value of the associated cue
as seen in cue-mediated reductions in sign-tracking.
 In order to discern how VP comes to represent cues in the environment and their relationships with other
cues in sequence, in vivo electrophysiological recordings of VP during SLPCP behavior will be employed. The
proposal will test the hypothesis that VP neuronal activity emerges to encode the motivational value of the
serial cues, with a representational bias towards the distal cue, and that activity of VP neurons can be shared
across both cues in a manner that reflects a shared value (Aim 1). To show that VP plays a causal role in the
development of this cue relationship, I will optogenetically inhibit VP during the presentation of the distal cue
only during acquisition to specifically reduce the distal lever bias behavioral effect. Later, distal lever extinction
will show that animals who received VP inhibition during the distal cue early on will not effectively update the
value of the proximal cue in test sessions (i.e., the shared value representati...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9907288
- **Project number:** 1F31DA050369-01
- **Recipient organization:** DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
- **Principal Investigator:** Elizabeth Smedley
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $34,267
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-03-11 → 2020-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9907288

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9907288, Ventral pallidum activity links motivationally attractive cues together for sign-tracked behavior (1F31DA050369-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9907288. Licensed CC0.

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