Medial prefrontal serotonin in the rat is involved in goal-directed behaviour when affect guides decision making.

RATIONALE: Across species, serotonin (5-HT) depletion in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) has been shown to cause impaired performance on tests of cognitive flexibility and the processing of affective information (e.g. information with an 'emotional' content). While recent work has explored the specific role of the orbital PFC herein, the role of the medial PFC remains unclear. OBJECTIVES: The aim of our current experiments was to study the role of medial PFC 5-HT in both the processing of affective information and reversal learning across stimulus modalities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To this end, we selectively destroyed 5-HT terminals in the medial PFC of male Wistar rats by means of local infusion of the toxin 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine. Both control and lesioned animals were tested in two reversal learning paradigms with either spatial or odour cues and an affective switch from non-preferred to preferred food rewards. RESULTS: Our results indicate that a pellet switch during reversal learning impaired performance in control animals but not in lesioned animals, independent of the stimulus modality. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that lesioned animals are not guided in their behaviour by the affective value of the reward like intact animals and thus that medial prefrontal 5-HT is needed for affective processing in goal-directed behaviour.

Lack of evidence for reduced prefrontal cortical serotonin and dopamine efflux after acute tryptophan depletion.

RATIONALE: Acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) is a widely used method to study the role of serotonin (5-HT) in affect and cognition. ATD results in a strong but transient decrease in plasma tryptophan and central 5-HT synthesis and availability. Although its use is widespread, the evidence that the numerous functional effects of ATD are caused by actual changes in 5-HT neuronal release is not very strong. Thus far, decreases in 5-HT efflux (thought to reflect synaptic release) were only reported after chronic tryptophan depletion or when ATD was combined with blockade of 5-HT reuptake. OBJECTIVE: With the current experiment, we aimed to study the validity of the method of ATD by measuring the extent to which it reduces the efflux of 5-HT (and dopamine) in the prefrontal cortex in the absence of reuptake blockage. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We simultaneously measured in freely moving animals plasma tryptophan via a catheter in the jugular vein and 5-HT and DA efflux in the medial prefrontal cortex through microdialysis after ATD treatment. RESULTS: ATD reduced plasma tryptophan to less than 30% of control, without affecting 5-HT or DA efflux in the prefrontal cortex, indicating that even strong reductions of plasma tryptophan do not necessarily result in decreases in central 5-HT efflux. CONCLUSION: The present experiment showed that reductions in plasma tryptophan, similar to values associated with behavioural effects, do not necessarily reduce 5-HT efflux and suggest that the cognitive and behavioural effects of ATD may not be (exclusively) due to alterations in 5-HT release.