TY  - JOUR
AU  - Barnstedt, Oliver
AU  - Mocellin, Petra
AU  - Remy, Stefan
TI  - A hippocampus-accumbens code guides goal-directed appetitive behavior.
JO  - Nature Communications
VL  - 15
IS  - 1
SN  - 2041-1723
CY  - [London]
PB  - Nature Publishing Group UK
M1  - DZNE-2024-00464
SP  - 3196
PY  - 2024
AB  - The dorsal hippocampus (dHPC) is a key brain region for the expression of spatial memories, such as navigating towards a learned reward location. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a prominent projection target of dHPC and implicated in value-based action selection. Yet, the contents of the dHPC→NAc information stream and their acute role in behavior remain largely unknown. Here, we found that optogenetic stimulation of the dHPC→NAc pathway while mice navigated towards a learned reward location was both necessary and sufficient for spatial memory-related appetitive behaviors. To understand the task-relevant coding properties of individual NAc-projecting hippocampal neurons (dHPC→NAc), we used in vivo dual-color two-photon imaging. In contrast to other dHPC neurons, the dHPC→NAc subpopulation contained more place cells, with enriched spatial tuning properties. This subpopulation also showed enhanced coding of non-spatial task-relevant behaviors such as deceleration and appetitive licking. A generalized linear model revealed enhanced conjunctive coding in dHPC→NAc neurons which improved the identification of the reward zone. We propose that dHPC routes specific reward-related spatial and behavioral state information to guide NAc action selection.
KW  - Animals
KW  - Mice
KW  - Goals
KW  - Hippocampus
KW  - Appetitive Behavior
KW  - Spatial Memory
KW  - Phospholipid Ethers
KW  - 1,2-dihexadecyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (NLM Chemicals)
KW  - Phospholipid Ethers (NLM Chemicals)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:38609363
C2  - pmc:PMC11015045
DO  - DOI:10.1038/s41467-024-47361-x
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/269033
ER  -