眶额叶皮质与中脑边缘多巴胺奖赏系统有着复杂的相互纤维联系。先前的研究探讨了药物成瘾过程中眶额叶皮质的脑电活动。在本实验中,将探讨食物奖赏和渴求过程中该皮质的脑电活动。实验采用了两个环境:对照环境和食物刺激相关的环境。首先,训练大鼠在食物刺激相关的环境中吃巧克力花生豆,而后在该环境中设置两种不同的刺激方式:能看到和闻到但不能吃到(渴求实验),或者仍旧可以吃到巧克力花生豆(奖赏实验);同时进行左侧眶额叶皮质的脑电记录。结果发现,在食物刺激相关的环境中大鼠Delta频段(2—4Hz)的脑电活动与食物刺激显著相关,此外,与在对照环境中相比,其相对功率在食物渴求时下降而在食物奖赏时升高。本实验表明,食物相关的奖励可以改变大鼠眶额叶皮质的脑电活动,而且,Delta频段的脑电活动能够作为监测该奖励的一个指标。
The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is particularly important for the neural representation of reward value. Previous studies indicated that electroencephalogram (EEG) activity in the OFC was involved in drug administration and withdrawal. The present study investigated EEG activity in the OFC in rats during the development of food reward and craving. Two environments were used separately for control and food-related EEG recordings. In the food-related environment rats were first trained to eat chocolate peanuts; then they either had no access to this food, but could see and smell it (craving trials), or had free access to this food (reward trials). The EEG in the left OFC was recorded during these trials. We showed that, in the food-related environment the EEG activity peaking in the delta band (2-4 Hz) was significantly correlated with the stimulus, increasing during food reward and decreasing during food craving when compared with that in the control environment. Our data suggests that EEG activity in the OFC can be altered by food reward; moreover, delta rhythm in this region could be used as an index monitoring changed signal underlying this reward.