Superior colliculus encodes the visual cue associated with rewarding behavior in sucrose self-administration in mice

Associative learning, serve as the neurobiological basis of operant conditioning, is essential for adaptive fitness and survival optimization. The visual cue-guided reward acquisition is fundamental in associative learning. However, the pathological memory formed through excessive reward-associated visual cues is also a critical factor contributing to addictive disorders. Thus, it is essential to understand the dynamic mechanisms of visual processing during cue-reward learning. Superior Colliculus (SC) is an important structure that transforms sensory inputs into motor outputs for the purpose of directing orienting behaviors and attention. How SC encodes the association between visual cues and rewarding behavior through specific type of neurons remains unclear. In present study, fiber photometry was used to detect the activity of SC glutamatergic neurons during visual cue-reward associative learning in sucrose self-administration and the intervention targeting SC glutamatergic neurons was conducted to investigate the impact on visual cue-induced reinstatement. We demonstrate that the visual cue related to reward activated SC glutamatergic neurons and chemogenetic inhibition of SC glutamatergic neurons suppresses the visual cue-induced reinstatement. These findings suggest that SC glutamatergic neurons encode reward-related visual cues through associative learning and are necessary for retrieval of the memory which drives the reinstatement, which provides evidence for further understanding of addiction process and maybe a new way to intervene for addicts.