Basolateral amygdala (BLA) neurons are engaged by emotionally salient stimuli. An area of increasing interest is how BLA dynamics relate to evolving reward-seeking behavior, especially under situations of uncertainty or ambiguity. Here, we recorded the activity of individual BLA neurons in male rats across the acquisition and extinction of conditioned reward seeking. We assessed ongoing neural dynamics in a task where long reward cue presentations preceded an unpredictable, variably time reward delivery. We found that, with training, BLA neurons discriminated the CS+ and CS– cues with sustained cue-evoked activity that correlated with behavior and terminated only after reward receipt. BLA neurons were bidirectionally modulated, with a majority showing prolonged inhibition during cued reward seeking. Strikingly, population-level analyses revealed that neurons showing cue-evoked inhibitions and those showing excitations similarly represented the CS+ and behavioral state. This sustained population code rapidly extinguished in parallel with conditioned behavior. We next assessed the contribution of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a major reciprocal partner to the BLA. Inactivation of the OFC while simultaneously recording in the BLA revealed a blunting of sustained cue-evoked activity in the BLA that accompanied reduced reward seeking. Optogenetic disruption of BLA activity and OFC terminals in the BLA also reduced reward seeking. Our data indicate that the BLA represents reward-seeking states via sustained, bidirectional cue-driven neural encoding. This code is regulated by cortical input and is important for the maintenance of vigilant reward-seeking behavior.

基底外侧杏仁核 （BLA） 神经元受到情绪上显着的刺激。一个越来越令人感兴趣的领域是 BLA 动态与不断发展的寻奖行为的关系，尤其是在不确定或模棱两可的情况下。在这里，我们记录了雄性大鼠中单个 BLA 神经元在条件性奖励寻求的获得和消灭过程中的活动。我们评估了一项任务中持续的神经动力学，其中长时间的奖励提示呈现在不可预测的、可变的时间奖励交付之前。我们发现，通过训练，BLA 神经元区分 CS+ 和 CS– 线索与持续的线索诱发活动，这些活动与行为相关，并且仅在收到奖励后终止。BLA 神经元是双向调制的，大多数在寻找提示奖励期间表现出长时间的抑制。引人注目的是，群体水平分析显示，显示线索诱发抑制的神经元和显示兴奋的神经元相似地代表 CS+ 和行为状态。这种持续的种群代码与条件行为同时迅速消失。接下来，我们评估了眶额叶皮层 （OFC） 的贡献，这是 BLA 的主要互惠伙伴。在 BLA 中记录的同时，OFC 失活揭示了 BLA 中持续线索诱发的活动减弱，伴随着奖励寻求的减少。BLA 中 BLA 活性和 OFC 末端的光遗传学破坏也减少了奖励寻求。我们的数据表明，BLA 通过持续的、双向的线索驱动的神经编码来表示寻求奖励的状态。此代码受皮层输入调节，对于维持警惕的寻求奖励行为非常重要。