Figure 7.

Deactivating the basal ganglia output via the SNr does not interfere with the development of caution when the unsignaled action is punished. A, Performance of signaled active avoidance during the AA1 and AA2 procedures when SNr GABAergic neurons are inhibited during the avoidance interval and a period preceding it. The data are taken from Hormigo et al. (2021b), which did not consider avoidance latencies. Training in AA2 led to abolishment of the ITCs and a sharp delay in avoidance latencies without impaired performance indicating that basal ganglia output via SNr is not required for being cautious about producing the signaled action. A No opsin group of mice that underwent the same optogenetic procedures but did not express Arch is included for comparison. B, Probability histogram (%) of avoidance latencies during AA1 and AA2 fitted with an exponential Gaussian for the data in A. Note the rightward shift of the latencies indicating the mice delayed their action in a sign of caution in both the Opsin and No Opsin groups.