Analysis of striatal neural activity during an exploration/exploitation task in a virtual environment

MARÍA ALEJANDRA PROST; MARIO GUSTAVO MURER; CAMILA L. ZOLD

Congreso; XXXIII Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias; 2018

The correct balance between exploration of new territories and exploitation of known resources is key for an organism´s survival. Studies suggest that the dorsomedial striatum is involved in decision making and action selection. Our aim is to analyze the activity of striatal single units while head-fixed mice perform a virtual exploration/exploitation task. The task consists of a virtual linear track with short rewarded zones followed by longer unrewarded corridors. Mice are implanted with tetrodes and a metal plaque that is used for atraumatic head restraint. Mice run on a cylinder and the virtual environment is presented on two monitors in front of them. Running speed is detected using an optical mouse, and is used to control the speed at which animals navigate the virtual environment. Upon arrival to a rewarded zone, mice need to lick a spout a certain number of times to obtain a drop of water.Our results reveal that mice are able to learn the task in hand by running through the corridors towards the rewarded area and licking there to obtain a reward. As sessions progress, the animals? behavior becomes more organized restricting their licks to the rewarded zones. Our results also reveal a change in neuronal activity -by increases or decreases of firing rate- related to relevant events of the task such as entrance and exit from the rewarded areas or reward delivery,. We also found a correlation between striatal firing rate and animals? the speed.