Impaired Cognitive Flexibility in Birds after Lesions of the Nucleus Accumbens

Cognitive flexibility allows adaptive responding, is impaired in several disorders (e.g., ADHD, schizophrenia), and involves dopamine circuits to a forebrain area, nucleus accumbens (NAc). Taking a comparative approach employing birds, we found NAc lesions created significant (but transient) perseverative responding (showing a lack of flexibility) on a reversal learning task.