Figure 2.

Inhibition of BLA terminals in the NAc before choice alters action selection during probabilistic discounting. A, Optogenetic manipulation and task design. Light was delivered at the start of every free choice trial until lever press. B, Percentage choice of the large/risky option under baseline conditions and during optogenetic tests. Inhibition before choice reduced risky choice during the higher, 50% probability block, and increased risky choice in the lower, 12.5% block (n = 16). Inset, Pre-choice optogenetic inhibition increased lose-shift behavior, but did not affect win-stay behavior. C, Individual data, plotted in terms of the percentage of risky choices under baseline and optogenetic test conditions (left panels) and the difference score of these values between baseline and test (right panels). Large circles and bars display the group mean ± SEM for the left and right panels, respectively. In the majority of animals tested, optogenetic inhibition reduced/increased risky choice relative to baseline in the 50%/12.5% probability blocks, respectively. For this and all other figures, error bars are SEM, and stars denote p < 0.05 compared to baseline.