Top-down corticostriatal control of adaptive restraint during motivational conflict.

Overview

1. Neuroscience Division, Institute of Cell Physiology, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City 04510, Mexico

Abstract

Adaptive behavior under threat requires withholding reward pursuit when past experiences predict danger. Here, we identified a corticostriatal circuit that enables behavioral restraint during motivational conflict. Using a seminaturalistic foraging task in male rats, we found that inactivation of the prelimbic cortex (PL) abolished restraint without impairing memory, and single-unit recordings revealed transient PL firing increases at decision points in conflict trials. c-Fos mapping showed selective engagement of the PL and nucleus accumbens core (NAcC) but not the nucleus accumbens shell. Inactivation further revealed that the anterior NAcC (aNAcC), but not the posterior NAcC, is necessary for restraint as posterior disruption broadly reduced reward-seeking regardless of threat. Silencing PL→aNAcC projections reproduced aNAcC effects without affecting memory or motivation, and this pathway was required under learned, but not innate, threats. Together, these findings identify a corticostriatal pathway through which PL control of aNAcC supports learned threat–guided restraint during reward seeking, revealing a top-down circuit architecture for adaptive action control during motivational conflict.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Data

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• doi:10.5061/dryad.7wm37pw7s, at Dryad; found in “Data, code, and materials availability:”

Data, code, and materials availability

All data and code needed to evaluate and reproduce the results in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. The source data and complete statistical results are available in Dryad at https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7wm37pw7s. This study did not generate new, unique materials. Viral vectors and related reagents used in this study are commercially or repository available from the University of North Carolina Vector Core and Addgene, as described in Materials and Methods. To obtain these viral vectors and reagents, readers should contact the corresponding provider directly through their official ordering/contact pages (UNC Vector Core: https://med.unc.edu/genetherapy/vectorcore/; Addgene: https://addgene.org).

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 3 authors, 11 MeSH terms, 4 funders, 63 references, 1 RRID.

Cite

This paper

Illescas-Huerta, E., Hernández-Ortiz, E., & Sotres-Bayon, F. (2026). Top-down corticostriatal control of adaptive restraint during motivational conflict. Science advances, 12(37), eaeg2327. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeg2327

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