Recordings from nucleus accumbens core neurons in female rats undergoing fear discrimination

These data were collected from the nucleus accumbens core (NAcc) of 7 adult female Long Evans rats using 16 wire drivable microelectrode bundles. Data include 368 single units recorded from 95 behavior sessions. Fear discrimination sessions consisted of 16 trials with a mean inter-trial interval of 3.5 min. Auditory cues were 10 s in duration and consisted of repeating motifs of a broadband click, phaser, or trumpet. Each cue was associated with a unique probability of foot shock (0.5 mA, 0.5 s): danger, p = 1.00; uncertainty, p = 0.25; and safety, p = 0.00. Auditory identity was counterbalanced across rats. Foot shock was administered 2 s following the termination of the auditory cue on danger and uncertainty shock trials. The order of trial type presentation was randomly determined by the behavioral program, and differed for each rat, each session. The microelectrode bundle was advanced in ~42-84 μm steps every other day to record from new units during the following session. For four of the seven rats, the electrode bundle was centered at +0.96 mm from bregma, for one of the seven rats, the electrode bundle was centered at +1.08 mm from bregma, the other two rats had electrodes centered at +1.20 mm and +1.28 from bregma, respectively. Data included are the result of spike sorting. Sample scripts used to visualize firing and behavior data from our main data file have been provided. These data have been published in Journal of Neuroscience and the complete methods are available with that publication: Ray MH, Moaddab M, and McDannald MA. (2022) Threat and bidirectional valence signaling in the nucleus accumbens core. Journal of Neuroscience 2 February 2022, 42 (5) 817-833; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1107-21.2021