• David Levcik, Adam H Sugi, Marcelo Aguilar-Rivera, José A Pochapski, Gabriel Baltazar, Laura N Pulido, Cyrus A Villas-Boas, Romulo Fuentes-Flores, Saleem M Nicola, and Claudio Da Cunha.
• Laboratório de Fisiologia e Farmacologia do Sistema Nervoso Central, Universidade Federal do Paraná, 81531-980 Curitiba, Brazil; Institute of Physiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Videnska 1083, 142 20 Prague, Czech Republic.
• Neuroscience. 2023 Aug 1; 524: 181196181-196.

AbstractThe nucleus accumbens (NAc) is considered an interface between motivation and action, with NAc neurons playing an important role in promoting reward approach. However, the encoding by NAc neurons that contributes to this role remains unknown. We recorded 62 NAc neurons in male Wistar rats (n = 5) running towards rewarded locations in an 8-arm radial maze. Variables related to locomotor approach kinematics were the best predictors of the firing rate for most NAc neurons. Nearly 18% of the recorded neurons were inhibited during the entire approach run (locomotion-off cells), suggesting that reduction in firing of these neurons promotes initiation of locomotor approach. 27% of the neurons presented a peak of activity during acceleration followed by a valley during deceleration (acceleration-on cells). Together, these neurons accounted for most of the speed and acceleration encoding identified in our analysis. In contrast, a further 16% of neurons presented a valley during acceleration followed by a peak just prior to or after reaching reward (deceleration-on cells). These findings suggest that these three classes of NAc neurons influence the time course of speed changes during locomotor approach to reward.Copyright © 2023 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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