Goal-directed actions transiently depend on dorsal hippocampus

Laura A Bradfield; Beatrice K Leung; Susan Boldt; Sophia Liang; Bernard W Balleine

doi:10.1038/s41593-020-0693-8

Goal-directed actions transiently depend on dorsal hippocampus

Nat Neurosci. 2020 Oct;23(10):1194-1197. doi: 10.1038/s41593-020-0693-8. Epub 2020 Aug 10.

Authors

Laura A Bradfield^#^{1

2}, Beatrice K Leung^#³, Susan Boldt⁴, Sophia Liang³, Bernard W Balleine⁵

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. laura.bradfield@uts.edu.au.
² St Vincent's Centre for Applied Medical Research, St Vincent's Health Network, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. laura.bradfield@uts.edu.au.
³ Decision Neuroscience Laboratory, School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁴ School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁵ Decision Neuroscience Laboratory, School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. bernard.balleine@unsw.edu.au.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 32778789
DOI: 10.1038/s41593-020-0693-8

Abstract

The role of the hippocampus in goal-directed action is currently unclear; studies investigating this issue have produced contradictory results. Here we reconcile these contradictions by demonstrating that, in rats, goal-directed action relies on the dorsal hippocampus, but only transiently, immediately after initial acquisition. Furthermore, we found that goal-directed action also depends transiently on physical context, suggesting a psychological basis for the hippocampal regulation of goal-directed action control.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Behavior, Animal
Conditioning, Operant / physiology*
Female
Goals*
Hippocampus / physiology*
Male
Rats, Long-Evans