Physio-psychological study about the transformation of neural circuits for cognitive flexibility.

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15H05400
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Experimental psychology
• Research Institution: Hiroshima University
• Principal Investigator: Hashimoto Kana (岡田佳奈) 広島大学, 医歯薬保健学研究科(医), 日本学術振興会特別研究員(RPD) (50528263)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 神経回路網

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Cholinergic interneurons in the DMS appear to play the central role of behavioural flexibility. Here, we conducted immunotoxin-mediated cell targeting of DMS cholinergic interneurons and examined the functions of these interneurons in behavioural flexibility, with the learning conditions differing in trial spacing. Elimination of the DMS cholinergic cell group impaired the reversal performance in response discrimination with the short ITI. In contrast, DMS cholinergic elimination resulted in enhanced reversal performance in response discrimination tasks with longer ITIs. These findings suggest distinct roles of the DMS cholinergic cell group in behavioural flexibility dependent on the trial spacing constituting the learning tasks.

Free Research Field

生理心理学