2023 Volume 34 Issue 3 Pages 107-110
Behavioral flexibility refers to the ability to adapt behavior in response to changes in the environment. Since behavioral flexibility is impaired in many neuropsychiatric disorders, it is important to elucidate its neural mechanisms. Flexible behavior in response to situations can be categorized into reversal learning and set‐shifting, in which attention is shifted to a new strategy. Here, we focused on the nucleus accumbens, which is involved in cognitive learning behaviors based on reward and aversion information, and outlined the neural circuit mechanisms involved in behavioral flexibility. The attentional set‐shift task revealed that the indirect pathways of the nucleus accumbens are important for reversal learning rather than set‐shifting. We also showed that the indirect pathways are important for flexible cognitive learning in the touch‐screen visual discrimination learning task. These results indicate that neural circuit plasticity is important in the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders.
