Relationships between the Prefrontal Cortex and the Basal Ganglia in the Rat: Physiology of the Cortico-Nigral Circuits

Abstract

The prelimbic/medial orbital areas (PL/MO) of the rat prefrontal cortex are connected to substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNR) through three main circuits: a direct nucleus accumbens (NAcc)–SNR pathway, an indirect NAcc–SNR pathway involving the ventral pallidum (VP) and the subthalamic nucleus (STN), and a disynaptic cortico-STN–SNR pathway. The present study was undertaken to characterize the effect of PL/MO stimulation on SNR cells and to determine the contribution of these different pathways. The major pattern of responses observed in the SNR was an inhibition preceded by an early excitation and followed or not by a late excitation. The inhibition resulted from the activation of the direct NAcc–SNR pathway because it disappeared after acute blockade of the glutamatergic cortico-striatal transmission by CNQX application into the NAcc. The late excitation resulted from the activation of the indirect NAcc–VP–STN–SNR pathway via a disinhibition of the STN because it disappeared after either CNQX application into the NAcc or blockade of the GABAergic striato-pallidal transmission by bicuculline application into the VP. The early excitation, which was markedly decreased after blockade of the cortico-STN transmission by CNQX application into the STN, resulted from the activation of the disynaptic cortico-STN–SNR pathway. Finally, the blockade of the cortico-STN–VP circuit by CNQX application into STN or VP modified the influence of the trans-striatal circuits on SNR cells. This study suggests that, in the prefrontal cortex–basal ganglia circuits, the trans-subthalamic pathways, by their excitatory effects, participate in the shaping of the inhibitory influence of the direct striato-nigral pathway on SNR neurons.