Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: A ventral tegmental area GABAergic projection to the ventral pallidum regulates value-based decision making in mice
doi: 10.64898/2026.02.19.706858
Figure Lengend Snippet: A mouse model of a two-option probabilistic reward choice task (PRT). Male GAD65-Cre mice (n = 5 mice) and their wild-type littermates (n = 2 mice) were trained in an operant task designed to assess value-based decision-making. (A) Schematic of behavioral chambers used in the PRT. In Option A, a nose-poke made into aperture A resulted in a 75% chance of receiving a high-value reward (Ensure, ∼24 μl, delivered over 2 s) and a 25% chance of receiving the same amount of water. Both liquids were delivered via a composite spout located at the lower-right corner. In Option B, a nose-poke into aperture B led to a 25% chance of receiving Ensure and a 75% chance of receiving water. The timing of each licking on the spout was recorded with a lickometer. (B) Actual recorded probabilities of receiving Ensure following Choice A (set at 75%) and Choice B (set at 25%), confirming task implementation. (C) Choice behavior across 5 training sessions (Days 1-5). Mice increasingly favored Choice A. Two-way ANOVA with repeated measures shows a significant main effect of choice (F(1,12) = 33.7, P = 8.4 × 10 -5 ), and a significant effect of training session (F(4,24) = 5.46, P = 0.0029). N = 7 mice. (D) Total number of nose-pokes across the five sessions. A trend toward increased nose-poking was observed, but the session effect did not reach statistical significance (F(4,24) = 2.41, P = 0.078).
Article Snippet: For fiber photometry studies, GAD65-Cre mice were infused with pGP-AAV1-syn-FLEX-jGCaMP7s-WPRE (Addgene, plasmid #104491) into the right VTA.
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