Abstract
Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) have been assigned various overlapping roles ranging from learning and responding to reward, signaling value and uncertainty, and supporting economic decisions, to name a few. Both of these regions share reciprocal anatomical connections with basolateral amygdala, contributing to functional similarities among these circuits. Using a combination of novel behavioral paradigms, chemogenetics, and 1P calcium imaging in freely-moving rats, our lab has sought better resolution of diverse frontocortical processes. In this talk I will present data comparing subregional frontal cortex contributions- more recently with secondary motor cortex (M2), and together with basolateral amygdala, in reward learning and value-based decisions. With a few key exceptions, our results suggest overlapping, less specialized roles for subregions of frontal cortex that point to complementary roles in keeping track of expected uncertainty, or the range of typically-experienced outcomes. Collectively these findings may have implications for how we view frontocortical contributions across rodent and primate species.
Biography
Dr. Izquierdo received a B.S. in Biology and Psychology from Emory University, and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience through the Graduate Partnership Program between the National Institutes of Health and The George Washington University. After completing her doctoral work at the National Institute of Mental Health, she spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Dr. Izquierdo is active in a number of national and international organizations and initiatives that support inclusion in STEM.