Basolateral amygdala to nucleus accumbens projections differentially mediate flexibility of sign- and goal-tracking rats

Rats rely on communication between basolateral amygdala (BLA) and nucleus accumbens (NAc) to express lever directed approach in a Pavlovian lever autoshaping (PLA) task that distinguishes sign- and goal-tracking rats. While sign-tracking rats inflexibly respond to cues even after the associated outcome is devalued, goal-tracking rats flexibly suppress conditioned responding during outcome devaluation. Here, we sought to determine whether BLA-NAc communication in sign-trackers drives rigid appetitive approach that is insensitive to manipulations of outcome value. Using a contralateral chemogenetic inactivation design, we injected contralateral BLA and NAc core with inhibitory DREADD (hm4D-mcherry) or control (mcherry) constructs. To determine sign- and goal-tracking groups, we trained rats in five PLA sessions in which brief lever insertion predicts food pellet delivery. We sated rats on training pellets (devalued condition) or chow (valued condition) prior to systemic clozapine injections (0.1 mg/kg) to inactivate BLA and contralateral NAc during two outcome devaluation probe tests, in which we measured lever and foodcup approach. Contralateral BLA-NAc chemogenetic inactivation promoted flexible lever approach in sign-tracking rats, but disrupted flexible food-cup approach in goal-tracking rats. Consistent with a prior BLA-NAc disconnection lesion study, we find contralateral chemogenetic inactivation of BLA and NAc core reduces lever, but not foodcup approach in PLA. Together these findings suggest rigid appetitive associative encoding in BLA-NAc of sign-tracking rats hinders the expression of flexible behavior when outcome value changes.