TY - JOUR
T1 - Cerebellar modulation of the reward circuitry and social behavior
AU - Carta, Ilaria
AU - Chen, Christopher H.
AU - Schott, Amanda L.
AU - Dorizan, Schnaude
AU - Khodakhah, Kamran
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2019/1/18
Y1 - 2019/1/18
N2 - The cerebellum has been implicated in a number of nonmotor mental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, and addiction. However, its contribution to these disorders is not well understood. In mice, we found that the cerebellum sends direct excitatory projections to the ventral tegmental area (VTA), one of the brain regions that processes and encodes reward. Optogenetic activation of the cerebello-VTA projections was rewarding and, in a three-chamber social task, these projections were more active when the animal explored the social chamber. Intriguingly, activity in the cerebello-VTA pathway was required for the mice to show social preference in this task. Our data delineate a major, previously unappreciated role for the cerebellum in controlling the reward circuitry and social behavior.
AB - The cerebellum has been implicated in a number of nonmotor mental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, and addiction. However, its contribution to these disorders is not well understood. In mice, we found that the cerebellum sends direct excitatory projections to the ventral tegmental area (VTA), one of the brain regions that processes and encodes reward. Optogenetic activation of the cerebello-VTA projections was rewarding and, in a three-chamber social task, these projections were more active when the animal explored the social chamber. Intriguingly, activity in the cerebello-VTA pathway was required for the mice to show social preference in this task. Our data delineate a major, previously unappreciated role for the cerebellum in controlling the reward circuitry and social behavior.
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U2 - 10.1126/science.aav0581
DO - 10.1126/science.aav0581
M3 - Article
C2 - 30655412
AN - SCOPUS:85060103471
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 363
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 6424
M1 - eaav0581
ER -