4427734

Abstract

During response conflict, when a stimulus is associated with multiple responses, there is need for a mechanism that enables selection of the goal-relevant response, while suppressing an habitual response. Due to the lack of spatial and temporal precision in previous studies that tried to understand the mechanisms underlying response conflict, four male wild-type Long-Evans-Tg(TH-Cre)3.1Deis rats were trained on an adapted Simon task, after which they were implanted with custom-made probes to record local field potentials from the midfrontal cortex during execution of the Simon task. During conflict, when the stimulus side did not match with the response side, reaction times and errors increased. Additionally, intracranial electrophysiology in the midfrontal cortex revealed that theta power (5-8 Hz) increased during conflict. This newly established electrophysiological rodent model opens up new possibilities for studying the underlying neural circuits of response conflict.