CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Basal ganglia are classically related to motor function, including command of voluntarymovements and motor skill learning. They are also involved in cognitive processes as decisionmaking and balance between goal-directed and habitual behaviors. The striatum is the mayorinput nuclei of basal ganglia and is strongly modulated by interneurons, in particular bycholinergic interneurons (SCIN). SCIN encode salient environmental events and contribute tocontext-dependent action selection. For that reason, SCIN are perceived as crucial elementsfor flexible switching of behaviors under changing environmental conditions. We havepreviously shown that SCIN ablation leads to exacerbated spontaneous emission of repetitivebehaviors, including social interaction. Here we ask if perseverative behavior induced by SCINablation relates to an inability to switch from strategies while solving spatial navigation tasks.We selectively ablate SCIN using a Cre/loxP transgenic system combined with intrastriataldiphtheria toxin administration. Mice were repeatedly exposed to Barnes and cross mazes.We did not find differences in learning curves between groups. In both tests, control micechange their task-resolution strategy across days. However, lesioned mice fail to adapt theirsolving strategy. This result suggests that SCIN are necessary to switch between solvingproblemstrategies to optimize cost benefit ratios.