We conducted experiments to understand the role of Ventral Hippocampus (vHPC) projections to the Nucleus Accumbens (NAc) in exploratory locomotion, and to determine if the reduced vHPC parvalbumin neuron activity can result in behaviors associated with schizophrenia. Through the use of optogenetics, we activated vHPC neurons and vHPC terminals in the NAc. Both manipulations significantly increased locomotor activity in the open field. Selective inhibition of vHPC terminals in the NAc during a test for novel environment exploration significantly reduced preference for novel environments over familiar environments. DREADD-mediated inhibition of activation of vHPC parvalbumin neuron activity did not significantly alter amphetamine-induced locomotion. Overall, these experiments provide support for the role of the vHPC-NAc pathway in mediating exploratory behavior in novel environments, but it remains inconclusive whether dysregulated vHPC activity due to the loss of parvalbumin neurons leads to behaviors associated with schizophrenia.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/33477 |
| Date | 26 November 2012 |
| Creators | Nguyen, Robin |
| Contributors | Kim, Junchul |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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