Age-related Changes in the Transmission of Reward Information to the Prefrontal Cortex

Authors: Payton Chen, Gabriela Manzano-Nieves

Field of Study: Integrative Neuroscience; Mathematical Sciences

Program Affiliation: Undergraduate Research Award

Faculty Mentors: Gabriela Manzano Nieves

Easel: 20

Timeslot: Midday

Abstract: Adolescents exhibit higher reward seeking and lower impulse control than adults, likely due to the maturation of Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) projections to the medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC). While the VTA regulated motivation, the mPFC acts as a higher-order regulatory region that interprets and modulates these projections necessary for learning reward-predicting value, reward-seeking behavior and impulsivity. Using fiber photometry, mPFC neurons were recorded while optogenetically stimulating VTA excitatory projections. Each mouse was assigned a single frequency, 5 ,20, 50, or 100 Hz, per day over four consecutive days. Within each session of 80 trials with a 15-20 second inter-trial interval, mice randomly received either five-second stimulation at the assigned frequency or a no-stimulation control.This experiment will help determine the mechanisms that drive the behavior changes from adolescence to adulthood by quantifying the magnitude and frequency dependence of VTA-to-mPFC transmission across development.