Nocturnal but not diurnal high frequency stimulation of the caudate nucleus ameliorates reward-coupled learning strategies in rats

High frequency stimulation (HFS) has been used to treat various neurological and psychiatric diseases. In previous studies we demonstrated that HFS of caudate nucleus, thought to be specialized for procedural learning and memory, reduces dopamine levels by enhancing GABA outflow in striatal slices. In this study, we are investigating the effect of striatal HFS application in sleeping vs. awakening rats on reward-coupled learning strategies. All in-vivo experiments were performed between 10am and 4pm (rest period of rats, “diurnal“) and 10pm and 4am (active period of rats, “nocturnal“), respectively. Rats were tr…