Extended Data Fig. 5: Cholinergic bursts transmit phasic information about reinforcers.
a, Raster plots (left) and corresponding peri-event time histograms (PETH, right) aligned to reward (blue) and punishment (brown) of a Reg-BFCN. After the precise phasic response, the intrinsic theta oscillation resumes. b, Raster plots (left) and corresponding PETHs (right) aligned to reward (blue) and punishment (brown) of an optogenetically identified tonically active cholinergic interneuron (TAN) recorded from the nucleus accumbens. Note the lack of precisely timed action potentials after reinforcement. Instead, TANs show well-characterized so-called ‘pause-burst’ responses after reward. c, Average PETH aligned to reward (blue) and punishment (brown) at two different time scales of n = 5 optogenetically identified TANs from caudate putamen (n = 3) and nucleus accumbens (n = 2) Solid lines, mean; shading, s.e.m. d, PETHs aligned to punishment (left) and reward (right) for all recorder TANs. e, Burst-BFCN-PLs showed similar burst selectivity after punishment as Burst-BFCN-SBs (p = 0.0004, two-sided Wilcoxon signed rank test). Solid lines, mean; shading, s.e.m.; bars, median. f, BFCNs responded phasically to reward (red, n = 38 Burst-BFCN-SBs; orange, n = 25 Burst-BFCN-PLs; green, n = 15 Reg-BFCNs). Solid lines, mean; shading, s.e.m. g, Bursts of Burst-BFCN-SBs (n = 33) appeared selectively after reward (p = 0.0093, two-sided Wilcoxon signed rank test). Solid lines, mean; shading, s.e.m.; bars, median.
