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TL;DR
Researchers selectively removed VIP interneurons in the medial prefrontal cortex of mice and found this led to increased impulsive behavior on a specific task without affecting anxiety or food intake.
PLOS ONE · 5 authors, 3 centres
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Researchers selectively removed VIP interneurons in the medial prefrontal cortex of mice and found this led to increased impulsive behavior on a specific task without affecting anxiety or food intake.
This preclinical study used a cre-dependent caspase-3 approach to ablate vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP)-expressing interneurons in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of male and female mice. The central behavioral outcome was assessed using the three-choice serial reaction time test. The main finding was that ablation of VIP interneurons caused a specific increase in impulsive responding during longer delay trials, but did not alter anxiety-like behaviors or hedonic food intake. The authors propose a circuit-level mechanism where VIP interneurons function as a 'gate' that is particularly active during periods of high expectation, such as long waiting intervals.