Prefrontal/accumbal catecholamine system processes emotionally driven attribution of motivational salience
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Stefano Puglisi-Allegra
Stefano Puglisi-Allegra received his degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’. He received his PhD in Neuroscience (Doctorat d’Etat ès Sciences) from the University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France. Currently he is a full professor of Psychobiology at the Sapienza University of Rome Italy, where he is chief of the Behavior Genetics Laboratory of the Department of Psychology. Chief of the Laboratory of Behavioral Neurobiology at Fondazione Santa Lucia, IRCCS, European Brain Research Center (CERC) Rome, Italy. He is also the Director of the Research Center of Neurobiology ‘Daniel Bovet’ at the Sapienza University of Rome. His research is focused on neural mechanisms of learning and memory, emotion and motivation, with particular emphasis on neurotransmission and neuroplasticity in mesocorticolimbic and mesocorticostriatal systems, and on translational models of psychopathologies such as stress, addiction, depression, and mental retardation. His main research topics in which he has produced the most significant contributions have been: The role of brain GABAergic system in agonistic behavior, the role of mesocorticolimbic catecholamine transmission in the stress response and in coping, and the role of a prefrontal cortical/accumbens system in the attribution of motivational salience.
and Rossella Ventura
Rossella Ventura is a PhD in Psychobiology and Psychopharmacology at the University ‘La Sapienza’, Rome, Italy. She is a Researcher at the Fondazione Santa Lucia, IRCCS, (European Centre for Brain Research, CERC), Rome, Italy. She is currently a researcher at the Faculty of Psychology at the University of L’Aquila, Italy. Her research is focused on neural mechanisms of emotion and motivation, with particular emphasis on catecholamine neurotransmission in the mesocorticolimbic system, and on translational models of psychopathologies such as stress, addiction, depression, and mental retardation. The main research topics in which she has produced the most significant contributions have been: The role of prefrontal cortical/accumbens system in motivational salience attribution to both reward and aversion related stimuli, with particular attention to drugs and food addiction, the role of mesocorticolimbic catecholamine transmission in the stress response and in coping, and the effects of early postnatal stress on neurochemical, cognitive, emotional and motivational functions during development and in adult life.
Abstract
Motivational salience regulates the strength of goal seeking, the amount of risk taken, and the energy invested, from mild to extreme. Emotional experiences promote highly persistent memories. Although this phenomenon is adaptive in normal conditions, experiences with extremely high levels of motivational salience can promote the development of memories, resulting in maladaptive outcomes such as compulsive seeking or avoidance. We have offered evidence that prefrontal cortical norepinephrine transmission is a necessary condition for motivational salience attribution to highly salient stimuli through modulation of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, a brain area involved in motivated behaviors. Moreover, the prefrontal-accumbal catecholamine system determines approach or avoidance responses to both reward- and aversion-related stimuli only when the salience of the unconditioned stimulus is high enough to induce sustained catecholamine activation, thus affirming that this system processes motivational salience attribution selectively to highly salient events. This system, when activated by highly salient stimuli, is likely to lead to motivational and neural processes that trigger mechanisms causing aberrant motivational salience attribution and to engage other frontal-subcortical systems, resulting in compulsion-driven behavioral disorders.
About the authors
Stefano Puglisi-Allegra received his degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’. He received his PhD in Neuroscience (Doctorat d’Etat ès Sciences) from the University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France. Currently he is a full professor of Psychobiology at the Sapienza University of Rome Italy, where he is chief of the Behavior Genetics Laboratory of the Department of Psychology. Chief of the Laboratory of Behavioral Neurobiology at Fondazione Santa Lucia, IRCCS, European Brain Research Center (CERC) Rome, Italy. He is also the Director of the Research Center of Neurobiology ‘Daniel Bovet’ at the Sapienza University of Rome. His research is focused on neural mechanisms of learning and memory, emotion and motivation, with particular emphasis on neurotransmission and neuroplasticity in mesocorticolimbic and mesocorticostriatal systems, and on translational models of psychopathologies such as stress, addiction, depression, and mental retardation. His main research topics in which he has produced the most significant contributions have been: The role of brain GABAergic system in agonistic behavior, the role of mesocorticolimbic catecholamine transmission in the stress response and in coping, and the role of a prefrontal cortical/accumbens system in the attribution of motivational salience.
Rossella Ventura is a PhD in Psychobiology and Psychopharmacology at the University ‘La Sapienza’, Rome, Italy. She is a Researcher at the Fondazione Santa Lucia, IRCCS, (European Centre for Brain Research, CERC), Rome, Italy. She is currently a researcher at the Faculty of Psychology at the University of L’Aquila, Italy. Her research is focused on neural mechanisms of emotion and motivation, with particular emphasis on catecholamine neurotransmission in the mesocorticolimbic system, and on translational models of psychopathologies such as stress, addiction, depression, and mental retardation. The main research topics in which she has produced the most significant contributions have been: The role of prefrontal cortical/accumbens system in motivational salience attribution to both reward and aversion related stimuli, with particular attention to drugs and food addiction, the role of mesocorticolimbic catecholamine transmission in the stress response and in coping, and the effects of early postnatal stress on neurochemical, cognitive, emotional and motivational functions during development and in adult life.
©2012 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
Articles in the same Issue
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- Guest Editorial
- Special Issue: The emotional brain and its relation to psychopathology
- Emotional modulation of the synapse
- Interplay of amygdala and insular cortex during and after associative taste aversion memory formation
- PKMζ inhibition prevents the metaplastic change induced by conditioned taste aversion on insular cortex long-term potentiation in vivo
- Taste and odor recognition memory: the emotional flavor of life
- Intense emotional experiences and enhanced training prevent memory loss induced by post-training amnesic treatments administered to the striatum, amygdala, hippocampus or substantia nigra
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- Spatial memory, plasticity and nucleus accumbens
- Serotonin and emotion, learning and memory
- Contribution of serotonin type 3 receptors in the successful extinction of cued or contextual fear conditioned responses: interactions with GABAergic signaling
- Bombesin receptor regulation of emotional memory
- Estrogen, cognitive functions and emotion: an overview on humans, non-human primates and rodents in reproductive years
- Molecular brake pad hypothesis: pulling off the brakes for emotional memory
- Emotional modulation of multiple memory systems: implications for the neurobiology of post-traumatic stress disorder
- Modeling specific phobias and posttraumatic stress disorder in rodents: the challenge to convey both cognitive and emotional features
- Learning to cope with stress: psychobiological mechanisms of stress resilience
- Effects of parabolic flight and spaceflight on the endocannabinoid system in humans
- Glucocorticoid-endocannabinoid interaction in cardiac surgical patients: relationship to early cognitive dysfunction and late depression
- Differences between the aging process and the chronic cerebrovascular impairment of memory functioning: the emotional and cognitive interaction
- A role for the superior colliculus in the modulation of threat responsiveness in primates: toward the ontogenesis of the social brain
- Cannabinoid modulation of mother-infant interaction: is it just about milk?
- Maternal exposure to low levels of corticosterone during lactation increases social play behavior in rat adolescent offspring
- Compulsive drug use and its neural substrates
- The role of the basal ganglia in motivated behavior
- The role of setting for ketamine abuse: clinical and preclinical evidence
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Masthead
- Guest Editorial
- Special Issue: The emotional brain and its relation to psychopathology
- Emotional modulation of the synapse
- Interplay of amygdala and insular cortex during and after associative taste aversion memory formation
- PKMζ inhibition prevents the metaplastic change induced by conditioned taste aversion on insular cortex long-term potentiation in vivo
- Taste and odor recognition memory: the emotional flavor of life
- Intense emotional experiences and enhanced training prevent memory loss induced by post-training amnesic treatments administered to the striatum, amygdala, hippocampus or substantia nigra
- Prefrontal/accumbal catecholamine system processes emotionally driven attribution of motivational salience
- Spatial memory, plasticity and nucleus accumbens
- Serotonin and emotion, learning and memory
- Contribution of serotonin type 3 receptors in the successful extinction of cued or contextual fear conditioned responses: interactions with GABAergic signaling
- Bombesin receptor regulation of emotional memory
- Estrogen, cognitive functions and emotion: an overview on humans, non-human primates and rodents in reproductive years
- Molecular brake pad hypothesis: pulling off the brakes for emotional memory
- Emotional modulation of multiple memory systems: implications for the neurobiology of post-traumatic stress disorder
- Modeling specific phobias and posttraumatic stress disorder in rodents: the challenge to convey both cognitive and emotional features
- Learning to cope with stress: psychobiological mechanisms of stress resilience
- Effects of parabolic flight and spaceflight on the endocannabinoid system in humans
- Glucocorticoid-endocannabinoid interaction in cardiac surgical patients: relationship to early cognitive dysfunction and late depression
- Differences between the aging process and the chronic cerebrovascular impairment of memory functioning: the emotional and cognitive interaction
- A role for the superior colliculus in the modulation of threat responsiveness in primates: toward the ontogenesis of the social brain
- Cannabinoid modulation of mother-infant interaction: is it just about milk?
- Maternal exposure to low levels of corticosterone during lactation increases social play behavior in rat adolescent offspring
- Compulsive drug use and its neural substrates
- The role of the basal ganglia in motivated behavior
- The role of setting for ketamine abuse: clinical and preclinical evidence