Orbitofrontal cortex and basolateral amygdala encode expected outcomes
during learning
Geoffrey Schoenbaum1, Andrea A. Chiba2
& Michela Gallagher1
1
Department of Psychology, Johns Hopkins University,
3400 North Charles St, 25 Ames Hall, Baltimore,
Maryland 21218, USA
2
Cognitive Science Department, University of California
at San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive - 0515, La Jolla,
California 92093, USA
Correspondence should be addressed to Geoffrey Schoenbaum schoenbg@jhu.edu
Reciprocal connections between the orbitofrontal cortex and the basolateral
nucleus of the amygdala may provide a critical circuit for the learning that
underlies goal-directed behavior. We examined neural activity in rat orbitofrontal
cortex and basolateral amygdala during instrumental learning in an olfactory
discrimination task. Neurons in both regions fired selectively during the
anticipation of rewarding or aversive outcomes. This selective activity emerged
early in training, before the rats had learned reliably to avoid the aversive
outcome. The results support the concept that the basolateral amygdala and
orbitofrontal cortex cooperate to encode information that may be used to guide
goal-directed behavior.
