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Unilateral medial frontal cortex lesions cause a cognitive decision‐making deficit in rats
Author(s) -
Croxson Paula L.,
Walton Mark E.,
Boorman Erie D.,
Rushworth Matthew F. S.,
Bannerman David M.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
european journal of neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.346
H-Index - 206
eISSN - 1460-9568
pISSN - 0953-816X
DOI - 10.1111/ejn.12751
Subject(s) - lesion , cognition , dopaminergic , neuroscience , frontal cortex , psychology , cognitive deficit , task (project management) , midbrain , iowa gambling task , cortex (anatomy) , prefrontal cortex , cognitive psychology , audiology , medicine , dopamine , central nervous system , cognitive impairment , psychiatry , management , economics
The medial frontal cortex ( MFC ) is critical for cost–benefit decision‐making. Generally, cognitive and reward‐based behaviour in rodents is not thought to be lateralised within the brain. In this study, however, we demonstrate that rats with unilateral MFC lesions show a profound change in decision‐making on an effort‐based decision‐making task. Furthermore, unilateral MFC lesions have a greater effect when the rat has to choose to put in more effort for a higher reward when it is on the contralateral side of space to the lesion. Importantly, this could not be explained by motor impairments as these animals did not show a turning bias in separate experiments. In contrast, rats with unilateral dopaminergic midbrain lesions did exhibit a motoric turning bias, but were unimpaired on the effort‐based decision‐making task. This rare example of a cognitive deficit caused by a unilateral cortical lesion in the rat brain indicates that the MFC may have a specialised and lateralised role in evaluating the costs and benefits of actions directed to specific spatial locations.