Abstract
We previously reported the rapid development of habitual behavior in a discrete-trials instrumental task in which lever insertion and retraction act as reward-predictive cues delineating sequence execution. Here we asked whether lever cues or performance variables reflective of skill and automaticity might account for habitual behavior in male rats. Behavior in the discrete-trials habit-promoting task was compared with two task variants lacking the sequence-delineating cues of lever extension and retraction. We find that behavior is under goal-directed control in absence of sequence-delineating cues but not in their presence, and that skilled performance does not predict goal-directed vs. habitual behavior. Neural activity recordings revealed an engagement of dorsolateral striatum and a disengagement of dorsomedial striatum during the sequence execution of the habit-promoting task, specifically. Together, these results indicate that sequence delineation cues promote habit and differential engagement of striatal subregions during instrumental responding, a pattern that may reflect cue-elicited behavioral chunking.