Dissociable roles for the striatal cholinergic system in different flexibility contexts

Williams, B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3844-3117 and Christakou, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4267-3436 (2022) Dissociable roles for the striatal cholinergic system in different flexibility contexts. IBRO Neuroscience Reports, 12. pp. 260-270. ISSN 2667-2421 doi: 10.1016/j.ibneur.2022.03.007

Abstract/Summary

The production of behavioural flexibility requires the coordination and integration of information from across the brain, by the dorsal striatum. In particular, the striatal cholinergic system is thought to be important for the modulation of striatal activity. Research from animal literature has shown that chemical inactivation of the dorsal striatum leads to impairments in reversal learning. Furthermore, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy work has shown that the striatal cholinergic system is also importaiknt for reversal learning in humans. Here, we aim to assess whether the state of the dorsal striatal cholinergic system at rest is related to serial reversal learning in humans. We provide preliminary results showing that variability in choline in the dorsal striatum is significantly related to both the number of perseverative and regressive errors that participants make, and their rate of learning from positive and negative prediction errors. These findings, in line with previous work, suggest the resting state of dorsal striatal cholinergic system has important implications for producing flexible behaviour. However, these results also suggest the system may have heterogeneous functionality across different types of tasks measuring behavioural flexibility. These findings provide a starting point for further interrogation into understanding the functional role of the striatal cholinergic system in flexibility.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/104489
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.ibneur.2022.03.007
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics (CINN) Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Neuroscience Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Psychopathology and Affective Neuroscience
Publisher	Elsevier
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