A differential involvement of the shell and core subterritories of the nucleus accumbens of rats in attentional processes

The nucleus accumbens comprises of two anatomically distinct subterritories: an inner core and an outer shell region. The distinct pattern of the core and shell input and output targets suggests that these two regions may mediate different behavioral processes. Using N-methyl-D-aspartate excitotoxic lesions in either the core or shell region, we investigated whether we can dissociate functionally these two subterritories. N-Methyl-D-aspartate-lesioned, sham-lesioned and non-operated animals were tested for locomotor activity in an open field and in two behavioral paradigms known to evaluate attentional deficits, namely the pre-pulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex and latent inhibition, measured in a two-way active avoidance paradigm. The shell-lesioned animals showed a small but significant hyperactivity in the open field when compared to the core-lesioned and to control animals. In the pre-pulse inhibition paradigm, core-lesioned animals demonstrated reduced pre-pulse inhibition to the two high pre-pulse intensities (80 dB[A], 84 dB[A]). In the active avoidance paradigm, whereas no lesion effects were detected in the non-pre-exposed groups, clear attenuation of latent inhibition was found in the shell-lesioned rats, in comparison to both core-lesioned and control rats, due to improved avoidance performance of the shell-pre-exposed group. From these results we suggest that the two subterritories of the nucleus accumbens are differentially involved in attention-related processes: the core lesion leads to significant disruption of pre-pulse inhibition while the shell lesion leads to heightened activity and significant attenuation of latent inhibition.