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Diehl MM, Moscarello JM, Trask S. Behavioral outputs and overlapping circuits between conditional fear and active avoidance. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2024; 213:107943. [PMID: 38821256 DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2024.107943] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2024] [Revised: 05/19/2024] [Accepted: 05/27/2024] [Indexed: 06/02/2024]
Abstract
Aversive learning can produce a wide variety of defensive behavioral responses depending on the circumstances, ranging from reactive responses like freezing to proactive avoidance responses. While most of this initial learning is behaviorally supported by an expectancy of an aversive outcome and neurally supported by activity within the basolateral amygdala, activity in other brain regions become necessary for the execution of defensive strategies that emerge in other aversive learning paradigms such as active avoidance. Here, we review the neural circuits that support both reactive and proactive defensive behaviors that are motivated by aversive learning, and identify commonalities between the neural substrates of these distinct (and often exclusive) behavioral strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria M Diehl
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA
| | | | - Sydney Trask
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA; Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
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2
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Ma J, O'Malley JJ, Kreiker M, Leng Y, Khan I, Kindel M, Penzo MA. Convergent direct and indirect cortical streams shape avoidance decisions in mice via the midline thalamus. Nat Commun 2024; 15:6598. [PMID: 39097600 PMCID: PMC11297946 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50941-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2024] [Accepted: 07/24/2024] [Indexed: 08/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Current concepts of corticothalamic organization in the mammalian brain are mainly based on sensory systems, with less focus on circuits for higher-order cognitive functions. In sensory systems, first-order thalamic relays are driven by subcortical inputs and modulated by cortical feedback, while higher-order relays receive strong excitatory cortical inputs. The applicability of these principles beyond sensory systems is uncertain. We investigated mouse prefronto-thalamic projections to the midline thalamus, revealing distinct top-down control. Unlike sensory systems, this pathway relies on indirect modulation via the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN). Specifically, the prelimbic area, which influences emotional and motivated behaviors, impacts instrumental avoidance responses through direct and indirect projections to the paraventricular thalamus. Both pathways promote defensive states, but the indirect pathway via the TRN is essential for organizing avoidance decisions through disinhibition. Our findings highlight intra-thalamic circuit dynamics that integrate cortical cognitive signals and their role in shaping complex behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Ma
- Section on the Neural Circuits of Emotion and Motivation, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
- Laboratory of Anesthesia and Analgesia Application Technology, Xuzhou Medical University, 221004, Xuzhou, China
| | - John J O'Malley
- Section on the Neural Circuits of Emotion and Motivation, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Malaz Kreiker
- Section on the Neural Circuits of Emotion and Motivation, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Yan Leng
- Section on the Neural Circuits of Emotion and Motivation, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Isbah Khan
- Section on the Neural Circuits of Emotion and Motivation, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Morgan Kindel
- Section on the Neural Circuits of Emotion and Motivation, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Mario A Penzo
- Section on the Neural Circuits of Emotion and Motivation, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
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3
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Miranda-Barrientos J, Adiraju S, Rehg JJ, Hallock HL, Li Y, Carr GV, Martinowich K. Patterns of neural activity in prelimbic cortex neurons correlate with attentional behavior in the rodent continuous performance test. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.07.26.605300. [PMID: 39091763 PMCID: PMC11291163 DOI: 10.1101/2024.07.26.605300] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/04/2024]
Abstract
Sustained attention, the ability to focus on a stimulus or task over extended periods, is crucial for higher level cognition, and is impaired in individuals diagnosed with neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, and depression. Translational tasks like the rodent continuous performance test (rCPT) can be used to study the cellular mechanisms underlying sustained attention. Accumulating evidence points to a role for the prelimbic cortex (PrL) in sustained attention, as electrophysiological single unit and local field (LFPs) recordings reflect changes in neural activity in the PrL in mice performing sustained attention tasks. While the evidence correlating PrL electrical activity with sustained attention is compelling, limitations inherent to electrophysiological recording techniques, including low sampling in single unit recordings and source ambivalence for LFPs, impede the ability to fully resolve the cellular mechanisms in the PrL that contribute to sustained attention. In vivo endoscopic calcium imaging using genetically encoded calcium sensors in behaving animals can address these questions by simultaneously recording up to hundreds of neurons at single cell resolution. Here, we used in vivo endoscopic calcium imaging to record patterns of neuronal activity in PrL neurons using the genetically encoded calcium sensor GCaMP6f in mice performing the rCPT at three timepoints requiring differing levels of cognitive demand and task proficiency. A higher proportion of PrL neurons were recruited during correct responses in sessions requiring high cognitive demand and task proficiency, and mice intercalated non-responsive-disengaged periods with responsive-engaged periods that resemble attention lapses. During disengaged periods, the correlation of calcium activity between PrL neurons was higher compared to engaged periods, suggesting a neuronal network state change during attention lapses in the PrL. Overall, these findings illustrate that cognitive demand, task proficiency, and task engagement differentially recruit activity in a subset of PrL neurons during sustained attention.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Suhaas Adiraju
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Johns Hopkins Medical Campus, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
| | - Jason J. Rehg
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Johns Hopkins Medical Campus, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
| | | | - Ye Li
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Johns Hopkins Medical Campus, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
| | - Gregory V. Carr
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Johns Hopkins Medical Campus, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
- Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
| | - Keri Martinowich
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Johns Hopkins Medical Campus, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
- The Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
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4
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Muñoz-Redondo C, Parras GG, Andreu-Sánchez C, Martín-Pascual MÁ, Delgado-García JM, Gruart A. Functional states of prelimbic and related circuits during the acquisition of a GO/noGO task in rats. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhae271. [PMID: 38997210 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae271] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2024] [Revised: 06/11/2024] [Accepted: 06/15/2024] [Indexed: 07/14/2024] Open
Abstract
GO/noGO tasks enable assessing decision-making processes and the ability to suppress a specific action according to the context. Here, rats had to discriminate between 2 visual stimuli (GO or noGO) shown on an iPad screen. The execution (for GO) or nonexecution (for noGO) of the selected action (to touch or not the visual display) were reinforced with food. The main goal was to record and to analyze local field potentials collected from cortical and subcortical structures when the visual stimuli were shown on the touch screen and during the subsequent activities. Rats were implanted with recording electrodes in the prelimbic cortex, primary motor cortex, nucleus accumbens septi, basolateral amygdala, dorsolateral and dorsomedial striatum, hippocampal CA1, and mediodorsal thalamic nucleus. Spectral analyses of the collected data demonstrate that the prelimbic cortex was selectively involved in the cognitive and motivational processing of the learning task but not in the execution of reward-directed behaviors. In addition, the other recorded structures presented specific tendencies to be involved in these 2 types of brain activity in response to the presentation of GO or noGO stimuli. Spectral analyses, spectrograms, and coherence between the recorded brain areas indicate their specific involvement in GO vs. noGO tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Gloria G Parras
- Division of Neurosciences, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville 41013, Spain
| | - Celia Andreu-Sánchez
- Neuro-Com Research Group, Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona 08190, Spain
- Cerdanyola del Vallès, Institut de Neurociènces, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona 08190, Spain
| | - Miguel Ángel Martín-Pascual
- Neuro-Com Research Group, Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona 08190, Spain
- Research and Development, Institute of Spanish Public Television (RTVE), Corporación Radio Televisión Española, Barcelona 08190, Spain
| | | | - Agnès Gruart
- Division of Neurosciences, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville 41013, Spain
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5
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Bobula B, Kusek M, Hess G. The 5-HT 7 receptor antagonist SB 269970 ameliorates maternal fluoxetine exposure-induced impairment of synaptic plasticity in the prefrontal cortex of the offspring female mice. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2024; 240:173779. [PMID: 38688436 DOI: 10.1016/j.pbb.2024.173779] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2024] [Revised: 04/18/2024] [Accepted: 04/25/2024] [Indexed: 05/02/2024]
Abstract
The use of a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine in depression during pregnancy and the postpartum period might increase the risk of affective disorders and cognitive symptoms in progeny. In animal models, maternal exposure to fluoxetine throughout gestation and lactation negatively affects the behavior of the offspring. Little is known about the effects of maternal fluoxetine on synaptic transmission and plasticity in the offspring cerebral cortex. During pregnancy and lactation C57BL/6J mouse dams received fluoxetine (7.5 mg/kg/day) with drinking water. Female offspring mice received intraperitoneal injections of the selective 5-HT7 receptor antagonist SB 269970 (2.5 mg/kg) for 7 days. Whole-cell and field potential electrophysiological recordings were performed in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) ex vivo brain slices. Perinatal exposure to fluoxetine resulted in decreased field potentials and impaired long-term potentiation (LTP) in layer II/III of the mPFC of female young adult offspring. Neither the intrinsic excitability nor spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents were altered in layer II/III mPFC pyramidal neurons. In mPFC slices obtained from fluoxetine-treated mice that were administered SB 269970 both field potentials and LTP magnitude were restored and did not differ from controls. Treatment of fluoxetine-exposed mice with a selective 5-HT7 receptor antagonist, SB 269970, normalizes synaptic transmission and restores the potential for plasticity in the mPFC of mice exposed in utero and postnatally to fluoxetine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bartosz Bobula
- Department of Physiology, Maj Institute of Pharmacology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland.
| | - Magdalena Kusek
- Department of Physiology, Maj Institute of Pharmacology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland.
| | - Grzegorz Hess
- Department of Physiology, Maj Institute of Pharmacology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland.
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6
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Plas SL, Oleksiak CR, Pitre C, Melton C, Moscarello JM, Maren S. Acute stress yields a sex-dependent facilitation of signaled active avoidance in rats. Neurobiol Stress 2024; 31:100656. [PMID: 38994219 PMCID: PMC11238190 DOI: 10.1016/j.ynstr.2024.100656] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2024] [Revised: 06/09/2024] [Accepted: 06/12/2024] [Indexed: 07/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating disorder characterized by excessive fear, hypervigilance, and avoidance of thoughts, situations or reminders of the trauma. Among these symptoms, relatively little is known about the etiology of pathological avoidance. Here we sought to determine whether acute stress influences avoidant behavior in adult male and female rats. We used a stress procedure (unsignaled footshock) that is known to induce long-term sensitization of fear and potentiate aversive learning. Rats were submitted to the stress procedure and, one week later, underwent two-way signaled active avoidance conditioning (SAA). In this task, rats learn to prevent an aversive outcome (shock) by performing a shuttling response when exposed to a warning signal (tone). We found that acute stress significantly enhanced SAA acquisition rate in females, but not males. Female rats exhibited significantly greater avoidance responding on the first day of training relative to controls, reaching similar levels of performance by the second day. Males that underwent the stress procedure showed similar rates of acquisition to controls but exhibited resistance to extinction. This was manifest as both elevated avoidance and intertrial responding across extinction days relative to non-stressed controls, an effect that was not observed in females. In a second experiment, acute stress sensitized footshock unconditioned responses in males, not females. However, males and females exhibited similar levels of stress-enhanced fear learning (SEFL), which was expressed as sensitized freezing to a shock-paired context. Together, these results reveal that acute stress facilitates SAA performance in both male and female rats, though the nature of this effect is different in the two sexes. We did not observe sex differences in SEFL, suggesting that the stress-induced sex difference in performance was selective for instrumental avoidance. Future work will elucidate the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the differential effect of stress on instrumental avoidance in male and female rats.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samantha L. Plas
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States
- Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States
| | - Cecily R. Oleksiak
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States
- Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States
| | - Claire Pitre
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States
| | - Chance Melton
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States
| | - Justin M. Moscarello
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States
- Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States
| | - Stephen Maren
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States
- Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States
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Csikós V, Dóra F, Láng T, Darai L, Szendi V, Tóth A, Cservenák M, Dobolyi A. Social Isolation Induces Changes in the Monoaminergic Signalling in the Rat Medial Prefrontal Cortex. Cells 2024; 13:1043. [PMID: 38920671 PMCID: PMC11201939 DOI: 10.3390/cells13121043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2024] [Revised: 06/02/2024] [Accepted: 06/13/2024] [Indexed: 06/27/2024] Open
Abstract
(1) Background: The effects of short-term social isolation during adulthood have not yet been fully established in rats behaviourally, and not at all transcriptomically in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). (2) Methods: We measured the behavioural effects of housing adult male rats in pairs or alone for 10 days. We also used RNA sequencing to measure the accompanying gene expression alterations in the mPFC of male rats. (3) Results: The isolated animals exhibited reduced sociability and social novelty preference, but increased social interaction. There was no change in their aggression, anxiety, or depression-like activity. Transcriptomic analysis revealed a differential expression of 46 genes between the groups. The KEGG pathway analysis showed that differentially expressed genes are involved in neuroactive ligand-receptor interactions, particularly in the dopaminergic and peptidergic systems, and addiction. Subsequent validation confirmed the decreased level of three altered genes: regulator of G protein signalling 9 (Rgs9), serotonin receptor 2c (Htr2c), and Prodynorphin (Pdyn), which are involved in dopaminergic, serotonergic, and peptidergic function, respectively. Antagonizing Htr2c confirmed its role in social novelty discrimination. (4) Conclusions: Social homeostatic regulations include monoaminergic and peptidergic systems of the mPFC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vivien Csikós
- Laboratory of Molecular and Systems Neurobiology, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Fanni Dóra
- Laboratory of Neuromorphology, Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Semmelweis University, 1094 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Tamás Láng
- Laboratory of Neuromorphology, Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Semmelweis University, 1094 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Luca Darai
- Laboratory of Molecular and Systems Neurobiology, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Vivien Szendi
- Laboratory of Molecular and Systems Neurobiology, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Attila Tóth
- In Vivo Electrophysiology Research Group, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Melinda Cservenák
- Laboratory of Molecular and Systems Neurobiology, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Arpád Dobolyi
- Laboratory of Molecular and Systems Neurobiology, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
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8
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Velazquez-Hernandez G, Miller NW, Curtis VR, Rivera-Pacheco CM, Lowe SM, Moy SS, Zannas AS, Pégard NC, Burgos-Robles A, Rodriguez-Romaguera J. Social threat alters the behavioral structure of social motivation and reshapes functional brain connectivity. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.06.17.599379. [PMID: 38948883 PMCID: PMC11212885 DOI: 10.1101/2024.06.17.599379] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/02/2024]
Abstract
Traumatic social experiences redefine socially motivated behaviors to enhance safety and survival. Although many brain regions have been implicated in signaling a social threat, the mechanisms by which global neural networks regulate such motivated behaviors remain unclear. To address this issue, we first combined traditional and modern behavioral tracking techniques in mice to assess both approach and avoidance, as well as sub-second behavioral changes, during a social threat learning task. We were able to identify previously undescribed body and tail movements during social threat learning and recognition that demonstrate unique alterations into the behavioral structure of social motivation. We then utilized inter-regional correlation analysis of brain activity after a mouse recognizes a social threat to explore functional communication amongst brain regions implicated in social motivation. Broad brain activity changes were observed within the nucleus accumbens, the paraventricular thalamus, the ventromedial hypothalamus, and the nucleus of reuniens. Inter-regional correlation analysis revealed a reshaping of the functional connectivity across the brain when mice recognize a social threat. Altogether, these findings suggest that reshaping of functional brain connectivity may be necessary to alter the behavioral structure of social motivation when a social threat is encountered.
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9
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Germé K, Pfaus JG. Acute ethanol disrupts conditioned inhibition in the male rat. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 2024:10.1007/s00213-024-06618-5. [PMID: 38822097 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-024-06618-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2024] [Accepted: 05/15/2024] [Indexed: 06/02/2024]
Abstract
RATIONALE Alcohol can disrupt conditioned sexual inhibition (CSI) established by first-order conditioning in male rats. CSI can also be induced using second-order conditioning, during which male rats are trained to associate a neutral odor with a nonreceptive female. As a result, when given access to two receptive females (one scented and one unscented) during a copulatory preference test, they display CSI toward the scented female. OBJECTIVE The present study examined the effect of low-to-moderate doses of alcohol on CSI and brain activation following exposure to alcohol and the olfactory cue alone. METHODS Sexually-naïve Long-Evans rats received alternate conditioning sessions with unscented receptive or scented (almond extract) non-receptive females. Following the conditioning phase, males were injected with saline, alcohol 0.5 g/kg or 1 g/kg, 45 min before a copulatory test with two receptive females, with one bearing the olfactory cue. Fos activation was later assessed, following exposure to alcohol and the olfactory cue alone, in several brain regions involved in the expression and regulation of male sexual behavior. RESULTS While males in the saline group displayed sexual avoidance towards the scented female, those injected with alcohol before the copulatory test, regardless of the dose, copulated indiscriminately with both females. Subsequent exposure to alcohol and the olfactory cue alone induced different Fos expression between groups in several brain regions. CONCLUSIONS Low to moderate doses of alcohol disrupt conditioned sexual inhibition in male rats and induce a differential pattern of neural activation, particularly in regions involved in the expression and regulation of sexual behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katuschia Germé
- Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Biology, Concordia University, Montréal, QC, H4B 1R7, Canada
| | - James G Pfaus
- Center for Sexual Health and Intervention, Czech National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, 25067, Czech Republic.
- Department of Psychology and Life Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, 18200, Czech Republic.
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10
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Plas SL, Oleksiak CR, Pitre C, Melton C, Moscarello JM, Maren S. Acute stress yields a sex-dependent facilitation of signaled active avoidance in rats. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.04.27.591470. [PMID: 38746268 PMCID: PMC11092500 DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.27.591470] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/16/2024]
Abstract
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating disorder characterized by excessive fear, hypervigilance, and avoidance of thoughts, situations or reminders of the trauma. Among these symptoms, relatively little is known about the etiology of pathological avoidance. Here we sought to determine whether acute stress influences avoidant behavior in adult male and female rats. We used a stress procedure (unsignaled footshock) that is known to induce long-term sensitization of fear and potentiate aversive learning. Rats were submitted to the stress procedure and, one week later, underwent two-way signaled active avoidance conditioning (SAA). In this task, rats learn to prevent an aversive outcome (shock) by performing a shuttling response when exposed to a warning signal (tone). We found that acute stress significantly enhanced SAA acquisition rate in females, but not males. Female rats exhibited significantly greater avoidance responding on the first day of training relative to controls, reaching similar levels of performance by the second day. Males that underwent the stress procedure showed similar rates of acquisition to controls but exhibited resistance to extinction. This was manifest as both elevated avoidance and intertrial responding across extinction days relative to non-stressed controls, an effect that was not observed in females. In a second experiment, acute stress sensitized footshock unconditioned responses in males, not females. However, males and females exhibited similar levels of stress-enhanced fear learning (SEFL), which was expressed as sensitized freezing to a shock-paired context. Together, these results reveal that acute stress facilitates SAA performance in both male and female rats, though the nature of this effect is different in the two sexes. We did not observe sex differences in SEFL, suggesting that the stress-induced sex difference in performance was selective for instrumental avoidance. Future work will elucidate the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the differential effect of stress on instrumental avoidance in male and female rats.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samantha L. Plas
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station
| | - Cecily R. Oleksiak
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station
| | - Claire Pitre
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station
| | - Chance Melton
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station
| | - Justin M. Moscarello
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station
| | - Stephen Maren
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station
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11
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Jaramillo JCM, Aitken CM, Lawrence AJ, Ryan PJ. Oxytocin-receptor-expressing neurons in the lateral parabrachial nucleus activate widespread brain regions predominantly involved in fluid satiation. J Chem Neuroanat 2024; 137:102403. [PMID: 38452468 DOI: 10.1016/j.jchemneu.2024.102403] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2024] [Revised: 02/21/2024] [Accepted: 02/23/2024] [Indexed: 03/09/2024]
Abstract
Fluid satiation is an important signal and aspect of body fluid homeostasis. Oxytocin-receptor-expressing neurons (OxtrPBN) in the dorsolateral subdivision of the lateral parabrachial nucleus (dl LPBN) are key neurons which regulate fluid satiation. In the present study, we investigated brain regions activated by stimulation of OxtrPBN neurons in order to better characterise the fluid satiation neurocircuitry in mice. Chemogenetic activation of OxtrPBN neurons increased Fos expression (a proxy marker for neuronal activation) in known fluid-regulating brain nuclei, as well as other regions that have unclear links to fluid regulation and which are likely involved in regulating other functions such as arousal and stress relief. In addition, we analysed and compared Fos expression patterns between chemogenetically-activated fluid satiation and physiological-induced fluid satiation. Both models of fluid satiation activated similar brain regions, suggesting that the chemogenetic model of stimulating OxtrPBN neurons is a relevant model of physiological fluid satiation. A deeper understanding of this neural circuit may lead to novel molecular targets and creation of therapeutic agents to treat fluid-related disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janine C M Jaramillo
- The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; The Florey Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Connor M Aitken
- The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; The Florey Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Andrew J Lawrence
- The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; The Florey Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Philip J Ryan
- The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; The Florey Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
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12
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Wang L, Wang S, Mo W, Li Y, Yang Q, Tian Y, Zheng C, Yang J, Ming D. Ultrasound Stimulation Attenuates CRS-Induced Depressive Behavior by Modulating Dopamine Release in the Prefrontal Cortex. IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng 2024; 32:1314-1323. [PMID: 38498742 DOI: 10.1109/tnsre.2024.3378976] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/20/2024]
Abstract
Depression is one of the most serious mental disorders affecting modern human life and is often caused by chronic stress. Dopamine system dysfunction is proposed to contribute to the pathophysiology of chronic stress, especially the ventral tegmental area (VTA) which mainly consists of dopaminergic neurons. Focused ultrasound stimulation (FUS) is a promising neuromodulation modality and multiple studies have demonstrated effective ultrasonic activation of cortical, subcortical, and related networks. However, the effects of FUS on the dopamine system and the potential link to chronic stress-induced depressive behaviors are relatively unknown. Here, we measured the effects of FUS targeting VTA on the improvement of depression-like behavior and evaluated the dopamine concentration in the downstream region - medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). We found that targeting VTA FUS treatment alleviated chronic restraint stress (CRS) -induced anhedonia and despair behavior. Using an in vivo photometry approach, we analyzed the dopamine signal of mPFC and revealed a significant increase following the FUS, positively associated with the improvement of anhedonia behavior. FUS also protected the dopaminergic neurons in VTA from the damage caused by CRS exposure. Thus, these results demonstrated that targeting VTA FUS treatment significantly rescued the depressive-like behavior and declined dopamine level of mPFC induced by CRS. These beneficial effects of FUS might be due to protection in the DA neuron of VTA. Our findings suggest that FUS treatment could serve as a new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of stress-related disorders.
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13
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Adeyelu T, Vaughn T, Ogundele OM. VTA Excitatory Neurons Control Reward-driven Behavior by Modulating Infralimbic Cortical Firing. Neuroscience 2024; 548:50-68. [PMID: 38513762 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2024.03.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2023] [Revised: 03/09/2024] [Accepted: 03/15/2024] [Indexed: 03/23/2024]
Abstract
The functional dichotomy of anatomical regions of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has been tested with greater certainty in punishment-driven tasks, and less so in reward-oriented paradigms. In the infralimbic cortex (IL), known for behavioral suppression (STOP), tasks linked with reward or punishment are encoded through firing rate decrease or increase, respectively. Although the ventral tegmental area (VTA) is the brain region governing reward/aversion learning, the link between its excitatory neuron population and IL encoding of reward-linked behavioral expression is unclear. Here, we present evidence that IL ensembles use a population-based mechanism involving broad inhibition of principal cells at intervals when reward is presented or expected. The IL encoding mechanism was consistent across multiple sessions with randomized rewarded target sites. Most IL neurons exhibit FR (Firing Rate) suppression during reward acquisition intervals (T1), and subsequent exploration of previously rewarded targets when the reward is omitted (T2). Furthermore, FR suppression in putative IL ensembles persisted for intervals that followed reward-linked target events. Pairing VTA glutamate inhibition with reward acquisition events reduced the weight of reward-target association expressed as a lower affinity for previously rewarded targets. For these intervals, fewer IL neurons per mouse trial showed FR decrease and were accompanied by an increase in the percentage of units with no change in FR. Together, we conclude that VTA glutamate neurons are likely involved in establishing IL inhibition states that encode reward acquisition, and subsequent reward-target association.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tolulope Adeyelu
- Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, United States
| | - Tashonda Vaughn
- Department of Environmental Toxicology, College of Agriculture, Southern University A&M College, Baton Rouge, LA 70813, United States
| | - Olalekan M Ogundele
- Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, United States.
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14
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Gutierrez-Castellanos N, Sarra D, Godinho BS, Mainen ZF. Maturation of cortical input to dorsal raphe nucleus increases behavioral persistence in mice. eLife 2024; 13:e93485. [PMID: 38477558 PMCID: PMC10994666 DOI: 10.7554/elife.93485] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2023] [Accepted: 02/28/2024] [Indexed: 03/14/2024] Open
Abstract
The ability to persist toward a desired objective is a fundamental aspect of behavioral control whose impairment is implicated in several behavioral disorders. One of the prominent features of behavioral persistence is that its maturation occurs relatively late in development. This is presumed to echo the developmental time course of a corresponding circuit within late-maturing parts of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex, but the specific identity of the responsible circuits is unknown. Here, we used a genetic approach to describe the maturation of the projection from layer 5 neurons of the neocortex to the dorsal raphe nucleus in mice. Using optogenetic-assisted circuit mapping, we show that this projection undergoes a dramatic increase in synaptic potency between postnatal weeks 3 and 8, corresponding to the transition from juvenile to adult. We then show that this period corresponds to an increase in the behavioral persistence that mice exhibit in a foraging task. Finally, we used a genetic targeting strategy that primarily affected neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex, to selectively ablate this pathway in adulthood and show that mice revert to a behavioral phenotype similar to juveniles. These results suggest that frontal cortical to dorsal raphe input is a critical anatomical and functional substrate of the development and manifestation of behavioral persistence.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Dario Sarra
- Champalimaud Research, Champalimaud FoundationLisbonPortugal
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Beatriz S Godinho
- Champalimaud Research, Champalimaud FoundationLisbonPortugal
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
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15
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Jacobs DS, Bogachuk AP, Moghaddam B. Orbitofrontal and Prelimbic Cortices Serve Complementary Roles in Adapting Reward Seeking to Learned Anxiety. Biol Psychiatry 2024:S0006-3223(24)01139-9. [PMID: 38460582 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.02.1015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2023] [Revised: 01/26/2024] [Accepted: 02/28/2024] [Indexed: 03/11/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Anxiety is a common symptom of several mental health disorders and adversely affects motivated behaviors. Anxiety can emerge from associating risk of future harm while engaged in goal-guided actions. Using a recently developed behavioral paradigm to model this aspect of anxiety, we investigated the role of 2 cortical subregions, the prelimbic medial frontal cortex (PL) and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC), which have been implicated in anxiety and outcome expectation, in flexible representation of actions associated with harm risk. METHODS A seek-take reward-guided instrumental task design was used to train animals (N = 8) to associate the seek action with a variable risk of punishment. After learning, animals underwent extinction training for this association. Fiber photometry was used to measure and compare neuronal activity in the PL and lOFC during learning and extinction. RESULTS Animals increased action suppression in response to punishment contingencies. This increase dissipated after extinction training. These behavioral changes were associated with region-specific changes in neuronal activity. PL neuronal activity preferentially adapted to the threat of punishment, whereas lOFC activity adapted to safe aspects of the task. Moreover, correlated activity between these regions was suppressed during actions associated with harm risk, suggesting that these regions may guide behavior independently under anxiety. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that the PL and lOFC serve distinct but complementary roles in the representation of learned anxiety. This dissociation may provide a mechanism to explain how overlapping cortical systems are implicated in reward-guided action execution during anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- David S Jacobs
- Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon
| | - Alina P Bogachuk
- Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon
| | - Bita Moghaddam
- Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon; Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon.
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16
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Noel ES, Chen A, Peña YA, Honeycutt JA. Early life adversity drives sex-dependent changes in 5-mC DNA methylation of parvalbumin cells in the prefrontal cortex in rats. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.01.31.578313. [PMID: 38352518 PMCID: PMC10862911 DOI: 10.1101/2024.01.31.578313] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/24/2024]
Abstract
Early life adversity (ELA) can result in increased risk for developing affective disorders, such as anxiety or depression, later in life, with women showing increased risk. Interactions between an individual's genes and their environment play key roles in producing, as well as mitigating, later life neuropathology. Our current understanding of the underlying epigenomic drivers of ELA associated anxiety and depression are limited, and this stems in part from the complexity of underlying biochemical processes associated with how early experiences shapes later life behavior. Epigenetic alterations, or experience-driven modifications to DNA, can be leveraged to understand the interplay between genes and the environment. The present study characterized DNA methylation patterning, assessed via evaluation of 5-methylcytosine (5-mC), following ELA in a Sprague Dawley rat model of ELA induced by early caregiver deprivation. This study utilized maternal separation to investigate sex- and age-specific outcomes of ELA on epigenetic patterning in parvalbumin (PV)-containing interneurons in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a subpopulation of inhibitory neurons which are associated with ELA and affective dysfunction. While global analysis of 5-mC methylation and CpG site specific pyrosequencing of the PV promoter, Pvalb, showed no obvious effects of ELA, when analyses were restricted to assessing 5-mC intensity in colocalized PV cells, there were significant sex and age dependent effects. We found that ELA leads sex-specific changes in PV cell counts, and that cell counts can be predicted by 5-mC intensity, with males and females showing distinct patterns of methylation and PV outcomes. ELA also produced sex-specific effects in corticosterone reactivity, with juvenile females showing a blunted stress hormone response compared to controls. Overall, ELA led to a sex-specific developmental shift in PV profile, which is comparable to profiles that are seen at a later developmental timepoint, and this shift may be mediated in part by epigenomic alterations driven by altered DNA methylation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emma S Noel
- Program in Biochemistry, Brunswick, ME 04011 USA
| | - Alissa Chen
- Program in Neuroscience, Brunswick, ME 04011 USA
| | | | - Jennifer A Honeycutt
- Program in Neuroscience, Brunswick, ME 04011 USA
- Department of Psychology Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME 04011 USA
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17
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Felix-Ortiz AC, Terrell JM, Gonzalez C, Msengi HD, Boggan MB, Ramos AR, Magalhães G, Burgos-Robles A. Prefrontal Regulation of Safety Learning during Ethologically Relevant Thermal Threat. eNeuro 2024; 11:ENEURO.0140-23.2024. [PMID: 38272673 PMCID: PMC10903390 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0140-23.2024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2023] [Revised: 01/02/2024] [Accepted: 01/22/2024] [Indexed: 01/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Learning and adaptation during sources of threat and safety are critical mechanisms for survival. The prelimbic (PL) and infralimbic (IL) subregions of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) have been broadly implicated in the processing of threat and safety. However, how these regions regulate threat and safety during naturalistic conditions involving thermal challenge still remains elusive. To examine this issue, we developed a novel paradigm in which adult mice learned that a particular zone that was identified with visuospatial cues was associated with either a noxious cold temperature ("threat zone") or a pleasant warm temperature ("safety zone"). This led to the rapid development of avoidance behavior when the zone was paired with cold threat or approach behavior when the zone was paired with warm safety. During a long-term test without further thermal reinforcement, mice continued to exhibit robust avoidance or approach to the zone of interest, indicating that enduring spatial-based memories were formed to represent the thermal threat and thermal safety zones. Optogenetic experiments revealed that neural activity in PL and IL was not essential for establishing the memory for the threat zone. However, PL and IL activity bidirectionally regulated memory formation for the safety zone. While IL activity promoted safety memory during normal conditions, PL activity suppressed safety memory especially after a stress pretreatment. Therefore, a working model is proposed in which balanced activity between PL and IL is favorable for safety memory formation, whereas unbalanced activity between these brain regions is detrimental for safety memory after stress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ada C Felix-Ortiz
- Department of Neuroscience, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas 78249
| | - Jaelyn M Terrell
- Department of Neuroscience, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas 78249
| | - Carolina Gonzalez
- Department of Neuroscience, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas 78249
| | - Hope D Msengi
- Department of Neuroscience, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas 78249
| | - Miranda B Boggan
- Department of Neuroscience, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas 78249
| | - Angelica R Ramos
- Department of Neuroscience, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas 78249
| | - Gabrielle Magalhães
- Department of Neuroscience, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas 78249
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
| | - Anthony Burgos-Robles
- Department of Neuroscience, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas 78249
- Brain Health Consortium, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas 78249
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18
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Neef NE, Chang SE. Knowns and unknowns about the neurobiology of stuttering. PLoS Biol 2024; 22:e3002492. [PMID: 38386639 PMCID: PMC10883586 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002492] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Stuttering occurs in early childhood during a dynamic phase of brain and behavioral development. The latest studies examining children at ages close to this critical developmental period have identified early brain alterations that are most likely linked to stuttering, while spontaneous recovery appears related to increased inter-area connectivity. By contrast, therapy-driven improvement in adults is associated with a functional reorganization within and beyond the speech network. The etiology of stuttering, however, remains enigmatic. This Unsolved Mystery highlights critical questions and points to neuroimaging findings that could inspire future research to uncover how genetics, interacting neural hierarchies, social context, and reward circuitry contribute to the many facets of stuttering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole E. Neef
- Institute for Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Soo-Eun Chang
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
- Department of Communication Disorders, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea
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19
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Lv SS, Lv XJ, Cai YQ, Hou XY, Zhang ZZ, Wang GH, Chen LQ, Lv N, Zhang YQ. Corticotropin-releasing hormone neurons control trigeminal neuralgia-induced anxiodepression via a hippocampus-to-prefrontal circuit. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2024; 10:eadj4196. [PMID: 38241377 PMCID: PMC10798562 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adj4196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2023] [Accepted: 12/21/2023] [Indexed: 01/21/2024]
Abstract
Anxiety and depression are frequently observed in patients suffering from trigeminal neuralgia (TN), but neural circuits and mechanisms underlying this association are poorly understood. Here, we identified a dedicated neural circuit from the ventral hippocampus (vHPC) to the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) that mediates TN-related anxiodepression. We found that TN caused an increase in excitatory synaptic transmission from vHPCCaMK2A neurons to mPFC inhibitory neurons marked by the expression of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH). Activation of CRH+ neurons subsequently led to feed-forward inhibition of layer V pyramidal neurons in the mPFC via activation of the CRH receptor 1 (CRHR1). Inhibition of the vHPCCaMK2A-mPFCCRH circuit ameliorated TN-induced anxiodepression, whereas activating this pathway sufficiently produced anxiodepressive-like behaviors. Thus, our studies identified a neural pathway driving pain-related anxiodepression and a molecular target for treating pain-related psychiatric disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Su-Su Lv
- Department of Translational Neuroscience, Jing’an District Centre Hospital of Shanghai, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
| | - Xue-Jing Lv
- Department of Translational Neuroscience, Jing’an District Centre Hospital of Shanghai, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
| | - Ya-Qi Cai
- Department of Translational Neuroscience, Jing’an District Centre Hospital of Shanghai, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
| | - Xin-Yu Hou
- Department of Translational Neuroscience, Jing’an District Centre Hospital of Shanghai, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
| | - Zhi-Zhe Zhang
- Department of Translational Neuroscience, Jing’an District Centre Hospital of Shanghai, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
| | - Guo-Hong Wang
- Department of Translational Neuroscience, Jing’an District Centre Hospital of Shanghai, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
| | - Li-Qiang Chen
- Department of Translational Neuroscience, Jing’an District Centre Hospital of Shanghai, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
| | - Ning Lv
- Department of Translational Neuroscience, Jing’an District Centre Hospital of Shanghai, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
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20
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Surets M, Caban-Murillo A, Ramirez S. Prelimbic cortex ensembles promote appetitive learning-associated behavior. Learn Mem 2024; 31:a053892. [PMID: 38408863 PMCID: PMC10903945 DOI: 10.1101/lm.053892.123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2023] [Accepted: 01/30/2024] [Indexed: 02/28/2024]
Abstract
Memories of prior rewards bias our actions and future decisions. To determine the neural correlates of an appetitive associative learning task, we trained male mice to discriminate a reward-predicting cue over the course of 7 d. Encoding, recent recall, and remote recall were investigated to determine the areas of the brain recruited at each stage of learning. Using cFos as a proxy for neuronal activity, we found unique brain-wide patterns of activity across days that seem to correlate with distinct stages of learning. In particular, the prelimbic (PL) cortex was significantly recruited during the encoding of a novel association presentation, but its activity decreases as learning continues. To causally dissect the role of the PL in a reward memory across days, we chemogenetically inhibited first the PL entirely and then only tagged memory-bearing cells that were active during encoding in two stages of learning: early and late. Both nonspecific and specific PL inhibition experiments indicate that the PL drives behavior during late stages of learning to facilitate appropriate cue-driven behavior. Overall, our work underscores memory's role in discriminative reward seeking, and points to the PL as a target for modulating disorders in which impaired reward processing is a core component.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michelle Surets
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
- Boston University School of Medicine, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
| | - Albit Caban-Murillo
- Graduate Program for Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
| | - Steve Ramirez
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
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21
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Jang DC, Choi S, Chung G, Kim SK. Global Cerebral Ischemia-induced Depression Accompanies Alteration of Neuronal Excitability in the Infralimbic Cortex Layer 2/3 Pyramidal Neurons. Exp Neurobiol 2023; 32:302-312. [PMID: 37749930 PMCID: PMC10569139 DOI: 10.5607/en23017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2023] [Revised: 07/19/2023] [Accepted: 08/30/2023] [Indexed: 09/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Cerebral ischemia can lead to a range of sequelae, including depression. The pathogenesis of depression involves neuronal change of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). However, how cerebral ischemia-induced changes manifest across subregions and layers of the mPFC is not well understood. In this study, we induced cerebral ischemia in mice via transient bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (tBCCAO) and observed depressive-like behavior. Using whole-cell patch clamp recording, we identified changes in the excitability of pyramidal neurons in the prelimbic cortex (PL) and infralimbic cortex (IL), the subregions of mPFC. Compared to sham control mice, tBCCAO mice showed significantly reduced neuronal excitability in IL layer 2/3 but not layer 5 pyramidal neurons, accompanied by increased rheobase current and decreased input resistance. In contrast, no changes were observed in the excitability of PL layer 2/3 and layer 5 pyramidal neurons. Our results provide a new direction for studying the pathogenesis of depression following ischemic damage by showing that cerebral ischemia induces subregion- and layer-specific changes in the mPFC pyramidal neurons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dong Cheol Jang
- Department of Physiology, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Korea
| | - Seunghwan Choi
- Department of East-West Medicine, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Korea
| | - Geehoon Chung
- Department of Physiology, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Korea
| | - Sun Kwang Kim
- Department of Physiology, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Korea
- Department of East-West Medicine, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Korea
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22
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Klune CB, Goodpaster CM, Gongwer MW, Gabriel CJ, Chen R, Jones NS, Schwarz LA, DeNardo LA. Developmentally distinct architectures in top-down circuits. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.08.27.555010. [PMID: 37693480 PMCID: PMC10491090 DOI: 10.1101/2023.08.27.555010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/12/2023]
Abstract
The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a key role in learning, mood and decision making, including in how individuals respond to threats 1-6 . mPFC undergoes a uniquely protracted development, with changes in synapse density, cortical thickness, long-range connectivity, and neuronal encoding properties continuing into early adulthood 7-21 . Models suggest that before adulthood, the slow-developing mPFC cannot adequately regulate activity in faster-developing subcortical centers 22,23 . They propose that during development, the enhanced influence of subcortical systems underlies distinctive behavioural strategies of juveniles and adolescents and that increasing mPFC control over subcortical structures eventually allows adult behaviours to emerge. Yet it has remained unclear how a progressive strengthening of top-down control can lead to nonlinear changes in behaviour as individuals mature 24,25 . To address this discrepancy, here we monitored and manipulated activity in the developing brain as animals responded to threats, establishing direct causal links between frontolimbic circuit activity and the behavioural strategies of juvenile, adolescent and adult mice. Rather than a linear strengthening of mPFC synaptic connectivity progressively regulating behaviour, we uncovered multiple developmental switches in the behavioural roles of mPFC circuits targeting the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and nucleus accumbens (NAc). We show these changes are accompanied by axonal pruning coinciding with functional strengthening of synaptic connectivity in the mPFC-BLA and mPFC-NAc pathways, which mature at different rates. Our results reveal how developing mPFC circuits pass through distinct architectures that may make them optimally adapted to the demands of age-specific challenges.
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23
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Gongwer MW, Klune CB, Couto J, Jin B, Enos AS, Chen R, Friedmann D, DeNardo LA. Brain-Wide Projections and Differential Encoding of Prefrontal Neuronal Classes Underlying Learned and Innate Threat Avoidance. J Neurosci 2023; 43:5810-5830. [PMID: 37491314 PMCID: PMC10423051 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0697-23.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2023] [Revised: 07/12/2023] [Accepted: 07/18/2023] [Indexed: 07/27/2023] Open
Abstract
To understand how the brain produces behavior, we must elucidate the relationships between neuronal connectivity and function. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is critical for complex functions including decision-making and mood. mPFC projection neurons collateralize extensively, but the relationships between mPFC neuronal activity and brain-wide connectivity are poorly understood. We performed whole-brain connectivity mapping and fiber photometry to better understand the mPFC circuits that control threat avoidance in male and female mice. Using tissue clearing and light sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM), we mapped the brain-wide axon collaterals of populations of mPFC neurons that project to nucleus accumbens (NAc), ventral tegmental area (VTA), or contralateral mPFC (cmPFC). We present DeepTraCE (deep learning-based tracing with combined enhancement), for quantifying bulk-labeled axonal projections in images of cleared tissue, and DeepCOUNT (deep-learning based counting of objects via 3D U-net pixel tagging), for quantifying cell bodies. Anatomical maps produced with DeepTraCE aligned with known axonal projection patterns and revealed class-specific topographic projections within regions. Using TRAP2 mice and DeepCOUNT, we analyzed whole-brain functional connectivity underlying threat avoidance. PL was the most highly connected node with functional connections to subsets of PL-cPL, PL-NAc, and PL-VTA target sites. Using fiber photometry, we found that during threat avoidance, cmPFC and NAc-projectors encoded conditioned stimuli, but only when action was required to avoid threats. mPFC-VTA neurons encoded learned but not innate avoidance behaviors. Together our results present new and optimized approaches for quantitative whole-brain analysis and indicate that anatomically defined classes of mPFC neurons have specialized roles in threat avoidance.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Understanding how the brain produces complex behaviors requires detailed knowledge of the relationships between neuronal connectivity and function. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a key role in learning, mood, and decision-making, including evaluating and responding to threats. mPFC dysfunction is strongly linked to fear, anxiety and mood disorders. Although mPFC circuits are clear therapeutic targets, gaps in our understanding of how they produce cognitive and emotional behaviors prevent us from designing effective interventions. To address this, we developed a high-throughput analysis pipeline for quantifying bulk-labeled fluorescent axons [DeepTraCE (deep learning-based tracing with combined enhancement)] or cell bodies [DeepCOUNT (deep-learning based counting of objects via 3D U-net pixel tagging)] in intact cleared brains. Using DeepTraCE, DeepCOUNT, and fiber photometry, we performed detailed anatomic and functional mapping of mPFC neuronal classes, identifying specialized roles in threat avoidance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael W Gongwer
- Department of Physiology
- Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program
- Medical Scientist Training Program
| | | | | | - Benita Jin
- Department of Physiology
- Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Physiology Interdepartmental Program, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095
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24
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Huang Z, Chung M, Tao K, Watarai A, Wang MY, Ito H, Okuyama T. Ventromedial prefrontal neurons represent self-states shaped by vicarious fear in male mice. Nat Commun 2023; 14:3458. [PMID: 37400435 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39081-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2022] [Accepted: 05/26/2023] [Indexed: 07/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Perception of fear induced by others in danger elicits complex vicarious fear responses and behavioral outputs. In rodents, observing a conspecific receive aversive stimuli leads to escape and freezing behavior. It remains unclear how these behavioral self-states in response to others in fear are neurophysiologically represented. Here, we assess such representations in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), an essential site for empathy, in an observational fear (OF) paradigm in male mice. We classify the observer mouse's stereotypic behaviors during OF using a machine-learning approach. Optogenetic inhibition of the vmPFC specifically disrupts OF-induced escape behavior. In vivo Ca2+ imaging reveals that vmPFC neural populations represent intermingled information of other- and self-states. Distinct subpopulations are activated and suppressed by others' fear responses, simultaneously representing self-freezing states. This mixed selectivity requires inputs from the anterior cingulate cortex and the basolateral amygdala to regulate OF-induced escape behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ziyan Huang
- Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (IQB), The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Myung Chung
- Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (IQB), The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Kentaro Tao
- Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (IQB), The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Akiyuki Watarai
- Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (IQB), The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Mu-Yun Wang
- Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (IQB), The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Hiroh Ito
- Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (IQB), The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Teruhiro Okuyama
- Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (IQB), The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
- Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
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25
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Verpeut JL, Bergeler S, Kislin M, William Townes F, Klibaite U, Dhanerawala ZM, Hoag A, Janarthanan S, Jung C, Lee J, Pisano TJ, Seagraves KM, Shaevitz JW, Wang SSH. Cerebellar contributions to a brainwide network for flexible behavior in mice. Commun Biol 2023; 6:605. [PMID: 37277453 PMCID: PMC10241932 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-04920-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2022] [Accepted: 05/05/2023] [Indexed: 06/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The cerebellum regulates nonmotor behavior, but the routes of influence are not well characterized. Here we report a necessary role for the posterior cerebellum in guiding a reversal learning task through a network of diencephalic and neocortical structures, and in flexibility of free behavior. After chemogenetic inhibition of lobule VI vermis or hemispheric crus I Purkinje cells, mice could learn a water Y-maze but were impaired in ability to reverse their initial choice. To map targets of perturbation, we imaged c-Fos activation in cleared whole brains using light-sheet microscopy. Reversal learning activated diencephalic and associative neocortical regions. Distinctive subsets of structures were altered by perturbation of lobule VI (including thalamus and habenula) and crus I (including hypothalamus and prelimbic/orbital cortex), and both perturbations influenced anterior cingulate and infralimbic cortex. To identify functional networks, we used correlated variation in c-Fos activation within each group. Lobule VI inactivation weakened within-thalamus correlations, while crus I inactivation divided neocortical activity into sensorimotor and associative subnetworks. In both groups, high-throughput automated analysis of whole-body movement revealed deficiencies in across-day behavioral habituation to an open-field environment. Taken together, these experiments reveal brainwide systems for cerebellar influence that affect multiple flexible responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica L Verpeut
- Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA.
| | - Silke Bergeler
- Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
- Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
- Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
| | - Mikhail Kislin
- Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
| | - F William Townes
- Department of Statistics and Data Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA
| | - Ugne Klibaite
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 01451, USA
| | - Zahra M Dhanerawala
- Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
| | - Austin Hoag
- Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
| | - Sanjeev Janarthanan
- Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
| | - Caroline Jung
- Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
| | - Junuk Lee
- Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
| | - Thomas J Pisano
- Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
| | - Kelly M Seagraves
- Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
| | - Joshua W Shaevitz
- Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
- Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
| | - Samuel S-H Wang
- Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA.
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Athanason A, Nadav T, Cates-Gatto C, Roberts A, Roberto M, Varodayan F. Chronic ethanol alters adrenergic receptor gene expression and produces cognitive deficits in male mice. Neurobiol Stress 2023; 24:100542. [PMID: 37197395 PMCID: PMC10184141 DOI: 10.1016/j.ynstr.2023.100542] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2023] [Revised: 04/12/2023] [Accepted: 04/27/2023] [Indexed: 05/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Hyperkateifia and stress-induced alcohol cravings drive relapse in individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD). The brain stress signal norepinephrine (also known as noradrenaline) tightly controls cognitive and affective behavior and was thought to be broadly dysregulated with AUD. The locus coeruleus (LC) is a major source of forebrain norepinephrine, and it was recently discovered that the LC sends distinct projections to addiction-associated regions suggesting that alcohol-induced noradrenergic changes may be more brain region-specific than originally thought. Here we investigated whether ethanol dependence alters adrenergic receptor gene expression in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and central amgydala (CeA), as these regions mediate the cognitive impairment and negative affective state of ethanol withdrawal. We exposed male C57BL/6J mice to the chronic intermittent ethanol vapor-2 bottle choice paradigm (CIE-2BC) to induce ethanol dependence, and assessed reference memory, anxiety-like behavior and adrenergic receptor transcript levels during 3-6 days of withdrawal. Dependence bidirectionally altered mouse brain α1 and β receptor mRNA levels, potentially leading to reduced mPFC adrenergic signaling and enhanced noradrenergic influence over the CeA. These brain region-specific gene expression changes were accompanied by long-term retention deficits and a shift in search strategy in a modified Barnes maze task, as well as greater spontaneous digging behavior and hyponeophagia. Current clinical studies are evaluating adrenergic compounds as a treatment for AUD-associated hyperkatefia, and our findings can contribute to the refinement of these therapies by increasing understanding of the specific neural systems and symptoms that may be targeted.
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Affiliation(s)
- A.C. Athanason
- Developmental Exposure Alcohol Research Center and Behavioral Neuroscience Program, Department of Psychology, Binghamton University-SUNY, 4400 Vestal Parkway East, Binghamton, NY, 13902, USA
| | - T. Nadav
- Animal Models Core Facility, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA
| | - C. Cates-Gatto
- Animal Models Core Facility, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA
| | - A.J. Roberts
- Animal Models Core Facility, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA
| | - M. Roberto
- Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA
| | - F.P. Varodayan
- Developmental Exposure Alcohol Research Center and Behavioral Neuroscience Program, Department of Psychology, Binghamton University-SUNY, 4400 Vestal Parkway East, Binghamton, NY, 13902, USA
- Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA
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Varodayan FP, Pahng AR, Davis TD, Gandhi P, Bajo M, Steinman MQ, Kiosses WB, Blednov YA, Burkart MD, Edwards S, Roberts AJ, Roberto M. Chronic ethanol induces a pro-inflammatory switch in interleukin-1β regulation of GABAergic signaling in the medial prefrontal cortex of male mice. Brain Behav Immun 2023; 110:125-139. [PMID: 36863493 PMCID: PMC10106421 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2023.02.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2022] [Revised: 02/20/2023] [Accepted: 02/25/2023] [Indexed: 03/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Neuroimmune pathways regulate brain function to influence complex behavior and play a role in several neuropsychiatric diseases, including alcohol use disorder (AUD). In particular, the interleukin-1 (IL-1) system has emerged as a key regulator of the brain's response to ethanol (alcohol). Here we investigated the mechanisms underlying ethanol-induced neuroadaptation of IL-1β signaling at GABAergic synapses in the prelimbic region of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), an area responsible for integrating contextual information to mediate conflicting motivational drives. We exposed C57BL/6J male mice to the chronic intermittent ethanol vapor-2 bottle choice paradigm (CIE-2BC) to induce ethanol dependence, and conducted ex vivo electrophysiology and molecular analyses. We found that the IL-1 system regulates basal mPFC function through its actions at inhibitory synapses on prelimbic layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons. IL-1β can selectively recruit either neuroprotective (PI3K/Akt) or pro-inflammatory (MyD88/p38 MAPK) mechanisms to produce opposing synaptic effects. In ethanol naïve conditions, there was a strong PI3K/Akt bias leading to a disinhibition of pyramidal neurons. Ethanol dependence produced opposite IL-1 effects - enhanced local inhibition via a switch in IL-1β signaling to the canonical pro-inflammatory MyD88 pathway. Ethanol dependence also increased cellular IL-1β in the mPFC, while decreasing expression of downstream effectors (Akt, p38 MAPK). Thus, IL-1β may represent a key neural substrate in ethanol-induced cortical dysfunction. As the IL-1 receptor antagonist (kineret) is already FDA-approved for other diseases, this work underscores the high therapeutic potential of IL-1 signaling/neuroimmune-based treatments for AUD.
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Affiliation(s)
- F P Varodayan
- Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA; Developmental Exposure Alcohol Research Center and Behavioral Neuroscience Program, Department of Psychology, Binghamton University-SUNY, Binghamton, NY, USA
| | - A R Pahng
- Department of Physiology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA, USA; Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System, New Orleans, LA, USA
| | - T D Davis
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Binghamton University-SUNY, Binghamton, NY, USA
| | - P Gandhi
- Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - M Bajo
- Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - M Q Steinman
- Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - W B Kiosses
- Microscopy Core Imaging Facility, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Y A Blednov
- Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
| | - M D Burkart
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - S Edwards
- Department of Physiology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA, USA
| | - A J Roberts
- Animal Models Core Facility, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - M Roberto
- Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.
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28
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Moorman DE, Aston-Jones G. Prelimbic and infralimbic medial prefrontal cortex neuron activity signals cocaine seeking variables across multiple timescales. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 2023; 240:575-594. [PMID: 36464693 PMCID: PMC10406502 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-022-06287-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2022] [Accepted: 11/23/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES The prefrontal cortex is critical for execution and inhibition of reward seeking. Neural manipulation of rodent medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) subregions differentially impacts execution and inhibition of cocaine seeking. Dorsal, or prelimbic (PL), and ventral, or infralimbic (IL) mPFC are implicated in cocaine seeking or extinction of cocaine seeking, respectively. This differentiation is not seen across all studies, indicating that further research is needed to understand specific mPFC contributions to drug seeking. METHODS We recorded neuronal activity in mPFC subregions during cocaine self-administration, extinction, and cue- and cocaine-induced reinstatement of cocaine seeking. RESULTS Both PL and IL neurons were phasically responsive around lever presses during cocaine self-administration, and activity in both areas was reduced during extinction. During both cue- and, to a greater extent, cocaine-induced reinstatement, PL neurons exhibited significantly elevated responses, in line with previous studies demonstrating a role for the region in relapse. The enhanced PL signaling in cocaine-induced reinstatement was driven by strong excitation and inhibition in different groups of neurons. Both of these response types were stronger in PL vs. IL neurons. Finally, we observed tonic changes in activity in all tasks phases, reflecting both session-long contextual modulation as well as minute-to-minute activity changes that were highly correlated with brain cocaine levels and motivation associated with cocaine seeking. CONCLUSIONS Although some differences were observed between PL and IL neuron activity across sessions, we found no evidence of a go/stop dichotomy in PL/IL function. Instead, our results demonstrate temporally heterogeneous prefrontal signaling during cocaine seeking and extinction in both PL and IL, revealing novel and complex functions for both regions during these behaviors. This combination of findings argues that mPFC neurons, in both PL and IL, provide multifaceted contributions to the regulation of drug seeking and addiction.
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Affiliation(s)
- David E Moorman
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences & Neuroscience and Behavior Graduate Program, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA.
| | - Gary Aston-Jones
- Brain Health Institute, Rutgers University and Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA
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29
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Hughes BW, Siemsen BM, Tsvetkov E, Berto S, Kumar J, Cornbrooks RG, Akiki RM, Cho JY, Carter JS, Snyder KK, Assali A, Scofield MD, Cowan CW, Taniguchi M. NPAS4 in the medial prefrontal cortex mediates chronic social defeat stress-induced anhedonia-like behavior and reductions in excitatory synapses. eLife 2023; 12:e75631. [PMID: 36780219 PMCID: PMC9925055 DOI: 10.7554/elife.75631] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2021] [Accepted: 01/29/2023] [Indexed: 02/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Chronic stress can produce reward system deficits (i.e., anhedonia) and other common symptoms associated with depressive disorders, as well as neural circuit hypofunction in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). However, the molecular mechanisms by which chronic stress promotes depressive-like behavior and hypofrontality remain unclear. We show here that the neuronal activity-regulated transcription factor, NPAS4, in the mPFC is regulated by chronic social defeat stress (CSDS), and it is required in this brain region for CSDS-induced changes in sucrose preference and natural reward motivation in the mice. Interestingly, NPAS4 is not required for CSDS-induced social avoidance or anxiety-like behavior. We also find that mPFC NPAS4 is required for CSDS-induced reductions in pyramidal neuron dendritic spine density, excitatory synaptic transmission, and presynaptic function, revealing a relationship between perturbation in excitatory synaptic transmission and the expression of anhedonia-like behavior in the mice. Finally, analysis of the mice mPFC tissues revealed that NPAS4 regulates the expression of numerous genes linked to glutamatergic synapses and ribosomal function, the expression of upregulated genes in CSDS-susceptible animals, and differentially expressed genes in postmortem human brains of patients with common neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression. Together, our findings position NPAS4 as a key mediator of chronic stress-induced hypofrontal states and anhedonia-like behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brandon W Hughes
- Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South CarolinaCharlestonUnited States
| | - Benjamin M Siemsen
- Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South CarolinaCharlestonUnited States
- Department of Anesthesiology, Medical University of South CarolinaCharlestonUnited States
| | - Evgeny Tsvetkov
- Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South CarolinaCharlestonUnited States
| | - Stefano Berto
- Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South CarolinaCharlestonUnited States
| | - Jaswinder Kumar
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical SchoolBelmontUnited States
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Texas Southwestern Medical CenterDallasUnited States
| | - Rebecca G Cornbrooks
- Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South CarolinaCharlestonUnited States
| | - Rose Marie Akiki
- Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South CarolinaCharlestonUnited States
| | - Jennifer Y Cho
- Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South CarolinaCharlestonUnited States
| | - Jordan S Carter
- Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South CarolinaCharlestonUnited States
| | - Kirsten K Snyder
- Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South CarolinaCharlestonUnited States
| | - Ahlem Assali
- Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South CarolinaCharlestonUnited States
| | - Michael D Scofield
- Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South CarolinaCharlestonUnited States
- Department of Anesthesiology, Medical University of South CarolinaCharlestonUnited States
| | - Christopher W Cowan
- Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South CarolinaCharlestonUnited States
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical SchoolBelmontUnited States
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Texas Southwestern Medical CenterDallasUnited States
| | - Makoto Taniguchi
- Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South CarolinaCharlestonUnited States
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical SchoolBelmontUnited States
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30
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Forys BJ, Tomm RJ, Stamboliyska D, Terpstra AR, Clark L, Chakrabarty T, Floresco SB, Todd RM. Gender Impacts the Relationship between Mood Disorder Symptoms and Effortful Avoidance Performance. eNeuro 2023; 10:ENEURO.0239-22.2023. [PMID: 36717265 PMCID: PMC9907394 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0239-22.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2022] [Revised: 01/04/2023] [Accepted: 01/09/2023] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
We must often decide how much effort to exert or withhold to avoid undesirable outcomes or obtain rewards. In depression and anxiety, levels of avoidance can be excessive and reward-seeking may be reduced. Yet outstanding questions remain about the links between motivated action/inhibition and anxiety and depression levels, and whether they differ between men and women. Here, we examined the relationship between anxiety and depression scores, and performance on effortful active and inhibitory avoidance (Study 1) and reward seeking (Study 2) in humans. Undergraduates and paid online workers ([Formula: see text] = 545, [Formula: see text] = 310; [Formula: see text] = 368, [Formula: see text] = 450, [Formula: see text] = 22.58, [Formula: see text] = 17-62) were assessed on the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and performed an instructed online avoidance or reward-seeking task. Participants had to make multiple presses on active trials and withhold presses on inhibitory trials to avoid an unpleasant sound (Study 1) or obtain points toward a monetary reward (Study 2). Overall, men deployed more effort than women in both avoidance and reward-seeking, and anxiety scores were negatively associated with active reward-seeking performance based on sensitivity scores. Gender interacted with anxiety scores and inhibitory avoidance performance, such that women with higher anxiety showed worse avoidance performance. Our results illuminate effects of gender in the relationship between anxiety and depression levels and the motivation to actively and effortfully respond to obtain positive and avoid negative outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brandon J Forys
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Ryan J Tomm
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Dayana Stamboliyska
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Alex R Terpstra
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Luke Clark
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z3, Canada
| | - Trisha Chakrabarty
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z3, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 2A1, Canada
| | - Stan B Floresco
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z3, Canada
| | - Rebecca M Todd
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z3, Canada
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31
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Lind EB, Sweis BM, Asp AJ, Esguerra M, Silvis KA, David Redish A, Thomas MJ. A quadruple dissociation of reward-related behaviour in mice across excitatory inputs to the nucleus accumbens shell. Commun Biol 2023; 6:119. [PMID: 36717646 PMCID: PMC9886947 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-04429-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2021] [Accepted: 01/05/2023] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
The nucleus accumbens shell (NAcSh) is critically important for reward valuations, yet it remains unclear how valuation information is integrated in this region to drive behaviour during reinforcement learning. Using an optogenetic spatial self-stimulation task in mice, here we show that contingent activation of different excitatory inputs to the NAcSh change expression of different reward-related behaviours. Our data indicate that medial prefrontal inputs support place preference via repeated actions, ventral hippocampal inputs consistently promote place preferences, basolateral amygdala inputs produce modest place preferences but as a byproduct of increased sensitivity to time investments, and paraventricular inputs reduce place preferences yet do not produce full avoidance behaviour. These findings suggest that each excitatory input provides distinct information to the NAcSh, and we propose that this reflects the reinforcement of different credit assignment functions. Our finding of a quadruple dissociation of NAcSh input-specific behaviours provides insights into how types of information carried by distinct inputs to the NAcSh could be integrated to help drive reinforcement learning and situationally appropriate behavioural responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erin B Lind
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, 6-145 Jackson Hall, 321 Church St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
- Medical Discovery Team on Addiction, University of Minnesota, 3-432 McGuire Translational Research Facility, 2001 6th St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
| | - Brian M Sweis
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, 6-145 Jackson Hall, 321 Church St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
- Medical Discovery Team on Addiction, University of Minnesota, 3-432 McGuire Translational Research Facility, 2001 6th St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1 Gustave L. Levy Pl, New York, NY, 10029, USA
| | - Anders J Asp
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, 6-145 Jackson Hall, 321 Church St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
- Rehabilitation Medicine Research Center, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mayo Clinic, 200 First St SW, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Manuel Esguerra
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, 6-145 Jackson Hall, 321 Church St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
- Medical Discovery Team on Addiction, University of Minnesota, 3-432 McGuire Translational Research Facility, 2001 6th St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
| | - Keelia A Silvis
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, 6-145 Jackson Hall, 321 Church St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
- Medical Discovery Team on Addiction, University of Minnesota, 3-432 McGuire Translational Research Facility, 2001 6th St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
| | - A David Redish
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, 6-145 Jackson Hall, 321 Church St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
- Medical Discovery Team on Addiction, University of Minnesota, 3-432 McGuire Translational Research Facility, 2001 6th St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
| | - Mark J Thomas
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, 6-145 Jackson Hall, 321 Church St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA.
- Medical Discovery Team on Addiction, University of Minnesota, 3-432 McGuire Translational Research Facility, 2001 6th St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA.
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Diehl GW, Redish AD. Differential processing of decision information in subregions of rodent medial prefrontal cortex. eLife 2023; 12:82833. [PMID: 36652289 PMCID: PMC9848391 DOI: 10.7554/elife.82833] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2022] [Accepted: 01/05/2023] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Decision-making involves multiple cognitive processes requiring different aspects of information about the situation at hand. The rodent medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has been hypothesized to be central to these abilities. Functional studies have sought to link specific processes to specific anatomical subregions, but past studies of mPFC have yielded controversial results, leaving the precise nature of mPFC function unclear. To settle this debate, we recorded from the full dorso-ventral extent of mPFC in each of 8 rats, as they performed a complex economic decision task. These data revealed four distinct functional domains within mPFC that closely mirrored anatomically identified subregions, including novel evidence to divide prelimbic cortex into dorsal and ventral components. We found that dorsal aspects of mPFC (ACC, dPL) were more involved in processing information about active decisions, while ventral aspects (vPL, IL) were more engaged in motivational factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Geoffrey W Diehl
- Department of Neuroscience, University of MinnesotaMinneapolisUnited States
| | - A David Redish
- Department of Neuroscience, University of MinnesotaMinneapolisUnited States
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33
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Seal S, Li Q, Basner EB, Saba LM, Kechris K. RCFGL: Rapid Condition adaptive Fused Graphical Lasso and application to modeling brain region co-expression networks. PLoS Comput Biol 2023; 19:e1010758. [PMID: 36607897 PMCID: PMC9821764 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010758] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2022] [Accepted: 11/24/2022] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Inferring gene co-expression networks is a useful process for understanding gene regulation and pathway activity. The networks are usually undirected graphs where genes are represented as nodes and an edge represents a significant co-expression relationship. When expression data of multiple (p) genes in multiple (K) conditions (e.g., treatments, tissues, strains) are available, joint estimation of networks harnessing shared information across them can significantly increase the power of analysis. In addition, examining condition-specific patterns of co-expression can provide insights into the underlying cellular processes activated in a particular condition. Condition adaptive fused graphical lasso (CFGL) is an existing method that incorporates condition specificity in a fused graphical lasso (FGL) model for estimating multiple co-expression networks. However, with computational complexity of O(p2K log K), the current implementation of CFGL is prohibitively slow even for a moderate number of genes and can only be used for a maximum of three conditions. In this paper, we propose a faster alternative of CFGL named rapid condition adaptive fused graphical lasso (RCFGL). In RCFGL, we incorporate the condition specificity into another popular model for joint network estimation, known as fused multiple graphical lasso (FMGL). We use a more efficient algorithm in the iterative steps compared to CFGL, enabling faster computation with complexity of O(p2K) and making it easily generalizable for more than three conditions. We also present a novel screening rule to determine if the full network estimation problem can be broken down into estimation of smaller disjoint sub-networks, thereby reducing the complexity further. We demonstrate the computational advantage and superior performance of our method compared to two non-condition adaptive methods, FGL and FMGL, and one condition adaptive method, CFGL in both simulation study and real data analysis. We used RCFGL to jointly estimate the gene co-expression networks in different brain regions (conditions) using a cohort of heterogeneous stock rats. We also provide an accommodating C and Python based package that implements RCFGL.
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Affiliation(s)
- Souvik Seal
- Department of Biostatistics and Informatics, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America
| | - Qunhua Li
- Department of Statistics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Elle Butler Basner
- Department of Statistics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Laura M. Saba
- Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America
| | - Katerina Kechris
- Department of Biostatistics and Informatics, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America
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Yu YH, Tsai AC, Ou CY, Cheng CN, Chang FC, Shyu BC, Huang ACW. Optogenetic stimulation in the medial prefrontal cortex modulates stimulus valence from rewarding and aversive to neutral states. Front Psychiatry 2023; 14:1119803. [PMID: 37113545 PMCID: PMC10126430 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1119803] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2022] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 04/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Understanding the modulations of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in the valence of the stimulus from rewarding and aversive status to neutral status is crucial for the development of novel treatments for drug addiction. This study addressed this issue and examined whether optogenetic ChR2 photostimulation in the cingulate, prelimbic, and infralimbic cortices of the mPFC regulated the valence of saccharin solution consumption from the rewarding property, the aversive property induced by morphine's conditioning, and the neutral states via saccharin extinction processes after morphine's conditioning. Methods All rats received virus infection, buried optical fiber, optical stimulation, water deprivation, and saccharin solution consumption phases. In Experiment 1, rats were given ChR2 virus infection into the cingulate cortex (Cg1), prelimbic cortex (PrL), and infralimbic cortex (IL) to influence the rewarding saccharin solution consumption under photostimulation. In Experiment 2, rats were given ChR2 or EYFP virus infection into the Cg1, PrL, and IL to alter the saccharin solution consumption in the morphine-induced aversively conditioned taste aversion (CTA) and the saccharin solution consumption in the neutral state following the extinction process under photostimulation. Later, the immunohistochemical staining with c-Fos protein was performed for the Cg1, IL, PrL, nucleus accumbens core, nucleus accumbens shell, central amygdala, basolateral amygdala, ventral tegmental area, and dentate gyrus. Results The results showed that optogenetic PrL stimulation decreased the rewarding valence of saccharin solution consumption and increased the morphine-induced, aversive valence of saccharin solution consumption. PrL stimulation decreased the neutral valence of saccharin solution consumption via the extinction process. Cg1 optogenetic stimulation increased the rewarding valence of saccharin solution consumption and the aversive valence of saccharin solution consumption induced by morphine in conditioning. Optogenetic IL stimulation increased the aversive valence of saccharin solution consumption induced by morphine via conditioning. Conclusion Altogether, optogenetic stimulation in the subareas of the mPFC modulated the reward, aversion, and neutral valences of the stimulus and altered neuronal activity in the mPFC, amygdala, nucleus accumbens, and hippocampus. Notably, the change of valence was temporary alternation during light-on related to the light-off periods. However, the findings may provide insights in the development of novel treatments for addictive symptoms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Hao Yu
- Department of Psychology, Fo Guang University, Yilan, Taiwan
- Department of Biotechnology and Animal Science, National Ilan University, Yilan, Taiwan
| | - Arthur C. Tsai
- Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Chen Yin Ou
- Department of Psychology, Fo Guang University, Yilan, Taiwan
| | - Cai-N Cheng
- Department of Psychology, Fo Guang University, Yilan, Taiwan
- Department of Life Sciences, National Central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan
| | - Fang Chih Chang
- Department of Psychology, Fo Guang University, Yilan, Taiwan
| | - Bai Chuang Shyu
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
- Bai Chuang Shyu, , orcid.org/0000-0001-5619-2281
| | - Andrew Chih Wei Huang
- Department of Psychology, Fo Guang University, Yilan, Taiwan
- *Correspondence: Andrew Chih Wei Huang, , orcid.org/0000-0001-9794-7302
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Triana-Del Rio R, Ranade S, Guardado J, LeDoux J, Klann E, Shrestha P. The modulation of emotional and social behaviors by oxytocin signaling in limbic network. Front Mol Neurosci 2022; 15:1002846. [PMID: 36466805 PMCID: PMC9714608 DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2022.1002846] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2022] [Accepted: 09/22/2022] [Indexed: 01/21/2024] Open
Abstract
Neuropeptides can exert volume modulation in neuronal networks, which account for a well-calibrated and fine-tuned regulation that depends on the sensory and behavioral contexts. For example, oxytocin (OT) and oxytocin receptor (OTR) trigger a signaling pattern encompassing intracellular cascades, synaptic plasticity, gene expression, and network regulation, that together function to increase the signal-to-noise ratio for sensory-dependent stress/threat and social responses. Activation of OTRs in emotional circuits within the limbic forebrain is necessary to acquire stress/threat responses. When emotional memories are retrieved, OTR-expressing cells act as gatekeepers of the threat response choice/discrimination. OT signaling has also been implicated in modulating social-exposure elicited responses in the neural circuits within the limbic forebrain. In this review, we describe the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the neuromodulation by OT, and how OT signaling in specific neural circuits and cell populations mediate stress/threat and social behaviors. OT and downstream signaling cascades are heavily implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by emotional and social dysregulation. Thus, a mechanistic understanding of downstream cellular effects of OT in relevant cell types and neural circuits can help design effective intervention techniques for a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sayali Ranade
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, School of Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States
| | - Jahel Guardado
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, United States
| | - Joseph LeDoux
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, United States
| | - Eric Klann
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, United States
| | - Prerana Shrestha
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, School of Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States
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Parsons W, Greiner E, Buczek L, Migliaccio J, Corbett E, Madden AMK, Petrovich GD. Sex differences in activation of extra-hypothalamic forebrain areas during hedonic eating. Brain Struct Funct 2022; 227:2857-2878. [PMID: 36258044 PMCID: PMC9724631 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-022-02580-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2022] [Accepted: 10/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Palatable foods can stimulate appetite without hunger, and unconstrained overeating underlies obesity and binge eating disorder. Women are more prone to obesity and binge eating than men but the neural causes of individual differences are unknown. In an animal model of hedonic eating, a prior study found that females were more susceptible than males to eat palatable food when sated and that the neuropeptide orexin/hypocretin (ORX) was crucial in both sexes. The current study examined potential extra-hypothalamic forebrain targets of ORX signaling during hedonic eating. We measured Fos induction in the cortical, thalamic, striatal, and amygdalar areas that receive substantial ORX inputs and contain their receptors in hungry and sated male and female rats during palatable (high-sucrose) food consumption. During the test, hungry rats of both sexes ate substantial amounts, and while sated males ate much less than hungry rats, sated females ate as much as hungry rats. The Fos induction analysis identified sex differences in recruitment of specific areas of the medial prefrontal cortex, paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT), nucleus accumbens (ACB), and central nucleus of the amygdala (CEA), and similar patterns across sexes in the insular cortex. There was a striking activation of the infralimbic cortex in sated males, who consumed the least amount food and unique correlations between the insular cortex, PVT, and CEA, as well as the prelimbic cortex, ACB, and CEA in sated females but not sated males. The study identified key functional circuits that may drive hedonic eating in a sex-specific manner.
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Affiliation(s)
- William Parsons
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467, USA
| | - Eliza Greiner
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467, USA
| | - Laura Buczek
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467, USA
| | - Jennifer Migliaccio
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467, USA
| | - Erin Corbett
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467, USA
| | - Amanda M K Madden
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467, USA
| | - Gorica D Petrovich
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467, USA.
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Niedringhaus M, West EA. Prelimbic cortex neural encoding dynamically tracks expected outcome value. Physiol Behav 2022; 256:113938. [PMID: 35944659 PMCID: PMC11247951 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2022.113938] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2022] [Revised: 08/04/2022] [Accepted: 08/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Animals must modify their behavior based on updated expected outcomes in a changing environment. Prelimbic cortex (PrL) neural encoding during learning predicts, and is necessary for, appropriately altering behavior based on a new expected outcome value following devaluation. We aimed to determine how PrL neural activity encodes reward predictive cues after the expected outcome value of those cues is decreased following conditioned taste aversion. In one post-devaluation session, rats were tested under extinction to determine their ability to alter their behavior to the expected outcome values (i.e., extinction test). In a second post-devaluation session, rats were tested with the newly devalued outcome delivered so that the rats experienced the updated outcome value within the session (i.e., re-exposure test). We found that PrL neural encoding of the cue associated with the devalued reward predicted the ability of rats to suppress behavior in the extinction test session, but not in the re-exposure test session. While all rats were able to successfully devalue the outcome during conditioned taste aversion, a subset of rats continued to consume the devalued outcome in the re-exposure test session. We found differential patterns of PrL neural encoding in the population of rats that did not avoid the devalued outcome during the re-exposure test compared to the rats that successfully avoided the devalued outcome. Our findings suggest that PrL neural encoding dynamically tracks expected outcome values, and differential neural encoding in the PrL to reward predictive cues following expected outcome value changes may contribute to distinct behavioral phenotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark Niedringhaus
- Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, Stratford, NJ, 08084
| | - Elizabeth A West
- Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, Stratford, NJ, 08084; Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, Stratford, NJ, 08084.
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Brockett AT, Tennyson SS, deBettencourt CA, Kallmyer M, Roesch MR. Medial prefrontal cortex lesions disrupt prepotent action selection signals in dorsomedial striatum. Curr Biol 2022; 32:3276-3287.e3. [PMID: 35803273 PMCID: PMC9378551 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2021] [Revised: 03/06/2022] [Accepted: 06/09/2022] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Abstract
The ability to inhibit or adapt unwanted actions or movements is a critical feature of almost all forms of behavior. Many have attributed this ability to frontal brain areas such as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), but the exact contribution of each brain region is often debated because their functions are not examined in animals performing the same task. Recently, we have shown that ACC signals a need for cognitive control and is crucial for the adaptation of action selection signals in dorsomedial striatum (DMS) in rats performing a stop-change task. Here, we show that unlike ACC, the prelimbic region of mPFC does not disrupt the inhibition or adaption of an action plan at either the level of behavior or downstream firing in DMS. Instead, lesions to mPFC correlate with changes in DMS signals involved in action initiation and disrupt performance on GO trials while improving performance on STOP trials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam T Brockett
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA; Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
| | - Stephen S Tennyson
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA; Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Coreylyn A deBettencourt
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA; Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Madeline Kallmyer
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA; Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Matthew R Roesch
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA; Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
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Zhou J, Hormigo S, Sajid MS, Castro-Alamancos MA. Caution Influences Avoidance and Approach Behaviors Differently. J Neurosci 2022; 42:5899-5915. [PMID: 35705490 PMCID: PMC9337599 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1892-21.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2021] [Revised: 06/09/2022] [Accepted: 06/13/2022] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
While conflict between incompatible goals has well-known effects on actions, in many situations the same action may produce harmful or beneficial consequences during different periods in a nonconflicting manner, e.g., crossing the street during a red or green light. To avoid harm, subjects must be cautious to inhibit the action specifically when it is punished, as in passive avoidance, but act when it is beneficial, as in active avoidance or active approach. In mice of both sexes performing a signaled action to avoid harm or obtain reward, we found that addition of a new rule that punishes the action when it occurs unsignaled delays the timing of the signaled action in an apparent sign of increased caution. Caution depended on task signaling, contingency, and reinforcement type. Interestingly, caution became persistent when the signaled action was avoidance motivated by danger but was only transient when it was approach motivated by reward. Although caution is represented by the activity of neurons in the midbrain, it developed independent of frontal cortex or basal ganglia output circuits. These results indicate that caution disrupts actions in different ways depending on the motivational state and may develop from unforeseen brain circuits.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Actions, such as crossing the street at a light, can have benefits during one light signal (getting somewhere) but can be harmful during a different signal (being run over). Humans must be cautious to cross the street during the period marked by the appropriate signal. In mice performing a signaled action to avoid harm or obtain reward, we found that addition of a new rule that punishes the action when it occurs unsignaled, delays the timing of the signaled action in an apparent sign of increased caution. Caution became persistent when the signaled action was motivated by danger, but not when it was motivated by reward. Moreover, the development of caution did not depend on prototypical frontal cortex circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ji Zhou
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, Connecticut 06001
| | - Sebastian Hormigo
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, Connecticut 06001
| | - Muhammad S Sajid
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, Connecticut 06001
| | - Manuel A Castro-Alamancos
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, Connecticut 06001
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40
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Divergent encoding of active avoidance behavior in corticostriatal and corticolimbic projections. Sci Rep 2022; 12:10731. [PMID: 35750718 PMCID: PMC9232563 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-14930-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2022] [Accepted: 05/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Active avoidance behavior, in which an animal performs an action to avoid a stressor, is crucial for survival and may provide insight into avoidance behaviors seen in anxiety disorders. Active avoidance requires the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), which is thought to regulate avoidance via downstream projections to the striatum and amygdala. However, the endogenous activity of dmPFC projections during active avoidance learning has never been recorded. Here we utilized fiber photometry to record from the dmPFC and its axonal projections to the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) and the basolateral amygdala (BLA) during active avoidance learning in both male and female mice. We examined neural activity during conditioned stimulus (CS) presentations and during clinically relevant behaviors such as active avoidance or cued freezing. Both prefrontal projections showed learning-related increases in activity during CS onset throughout active avoidance training. The dmPFC as a whole showed increased and decreased patterns of activity during avoidance and cued freezing, respectively. Finally, dmPFC-DMS and dmPFC-BLA projections show divergent encoding of active avoidance behavior, with the dmPFC-DMS projection showing increased activity and the dmPFC-BLA projection showing decreased activity during active avoidance. Our results demonstrate task-relevant encoding of active avoidance in projection-specific dmPFC subpopulations that play distinct but complementary roles in active avoidance learning.
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Piani MC, Maggioni E, Delvecchio G, Brambilla P. Sustained attention alterations in major depressive disorder: A review of fMRI studies employing Go/No-Go and CPT tasks. J Affect Disord 2022; 303:98-113. [PMID: 35139418 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.02.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2021] [Revised: 12/23/2021] [Accepted: 02/04/2022] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a severe psychiatric condition characterized by selective cognitive dysfunctions. In this regard, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies showed, both at resting state and during tasks, alterations in the brain functional networks involved in cognitive processes in MDD patients compared to controls. Among those, it seems that the attention network may have a role in the disease pathophysiology. Therefore, in this review we aim at summarizing the current fMRI evidence investigating sustained attention in MDD patients. METHODS We conducted a search on PubMed on case-control studies on MDD employing fMRI acquisitions during Go/No-Go and continuous performance tasks. A total of 12 studies have been included in the review. RESULTS Overall, the majority of fMRI studies reported quantitative alterations in the response to attentive tasks in selective brain regions, including the prefrontal cortex, the cingulate cortex, the temporal and parietal lobes, the insula and the precuneus, which are key nodes of the attention, the executive, and the default mode networks. LIMITATIONS The heterogeneity in the study designs, fMRI acquisition techniques and processing methods have limited the generalizability of the results. CONCLUSIONS The results from the included studies showed the presence of alterations in the activation patterns of regions involved in sustained attention in MDD, which are in line with current evidence and seemed to explain some of the key symptoms of depression. However, given the paucity and heterogeneity of studies available, it may be worthwhile to continue investigating the attentional domain in MDD with ad-hoc study designs to retrieve more robust evidence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Chiara Piani
- Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milano 20122, Italy
| | - Eleonora Maggioni
- Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milano 20122, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Delvecchio
- Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milano 20122, Italy.
| | - Paolo Brambilla
- Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milano 20122, Italy; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan, Italy
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Hones VI, Mizumori SJY. Response Flexibility: The Role of the Lateral Habenula. Front Behav Neurosci 2022; 16:852235. [PMID: 35444521 PMCID: PMC9014270 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.852235] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2022] [Accepted: 03/01/2022] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
The ability to make appropriate decisions that result in an optimal outcome is critical for survival. This process involves assessing the environment as well as integrating prior knowledge about the environment with information about one’s current internal state. There are many neural structures that play critical roles in mediating these processes, but it is not yet known how such information coalesces to influence behavioral output. The lateral habenula (LHb) has often been cited as a structure critical for adaptive and flexible responding when environmental contexts and internal state changes. A challenge, however, has been understanding how LHb promotes response flexibility. In this review, we hypothesize that the LHb enables flexible responding following the integration of context memory and internal state information by signaling downstream brainstem structures known to drive hippocampal theta. In this way, animals respond more flexibly in a task situation not because the LHb selects a particular action, but rather because LHb enhances a hippocampal neural state that is often associated with greater attention, arousal, and exploration. In freely navigating animals, these are essential conditions that are needed to discover and implement appropriate alternative choices and behaviors. As a corollary to our hypothesis, we describe short- and intermediate-term functions of the LHb. Finally, we discuss the effects on the behavior of LHb dysfunction in short- and intermediate-timescales, and then suggest that new therapies may act on the LHb to alleviate the behavioral impairments following long-term LHb disruption.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victoria I. Hones
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
| | - Sheri J. Y. Mizumori
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
- Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
- *Correspondence: Sheri J. Y. Mizumori
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Howland JG, Ito R, Lapish CC, Villaruel FR. The rodent medial prefrontal cortex and associated circuits in orchestrating adaptive behavior under variable demands. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2022; 135:104569. [PMID: 35131398 PMCID: PMC9248379 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104569] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2021] [Revised: 12/17/2021] [Accepted: 02/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Emerging evidence implicates rodent medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in tasks requiring adaptation of behavior to changing information from external and internal sources. However, the computations within mPFC and subsequent outputs that determine behavior are incompletely understood. We review the involvement of mPFC subregions, and their projections to the striatum and amygdala in two broad types of tasks in rodents: 1) appetitive and aversive Pavlovian and operant conditioning tasks that engage mPFC-striatum and mPFC-amygdala circuits, and 2) foraging-based tasks that require decision making to optimize reward. We find support for region-specific function of the mPFC, with dorsal mPFC and its projections to the dorsomedial striatum supporting action control with higher cognitive demands, and ventral mPFC engagement in translating affective signals into behavior via discrete projections to the ventral striatum and amygdala. However, we also propose that defined mPFC subdivisions operate as a functional continuum rather than segregated functional units, with crosstalk that allows distinct subregion-specific inputs (e.g., internal, affective) to influence adaptive behavior supported by other subregions.
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Affiliation(s)
- John G Howland
- Department of Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
| | - Rutsuko Ito
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto-Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada.
| | - Christopher C Lapish
- Department of Psychology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
| | - Franz R Villaruel
- Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
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Anderson MC, Floresco SB. Prefrontal-hippocampal interactions supporting the extinction of emotional memories: the retrieval stopping model. Neuropsychopharmacology 2022; 47:180-195. [PMID: 34446831 PMCID: PMC8616908 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-021-01131-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2021] [Revised: 07/21/2021] [Accepted: 07/22/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Neuroimaging has revealed robust interactions between the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus when people stop memory retrieval. Efforts to stop retrieval can arise when people encounter reminders to unpleasant thoughts they prefer not to think about. Retrieval stopping suppresses hippocampal and amygdala activity, especially when cues elicit aversive memory intrusions, via a broad inhibitory control capacity enabling prepotent response suppression. Repeated retrieval stopping reduces intrusions of unpleasant memories and diminishes their affective tone, outcomes resembling those achieved by the extinction of conditioned emotional responses. Despite this resemblance, the role of inhibitory fronto-hippocampal interactions and retrieval stopping broadly in extinction has received little attention. Here we integrate human and animal research on extinction and retrieval stopping. We argue that reconceptualising extinction to integrate mnemonic inhibitory control with learning would yield a greater understanding of extinction's relevance to mental health. We hypothesize that fear extinction spontaneously engages retrieval stopping across species, and that controlled suppression of hippocampal and amygdala activity by the prefrontal cortex reduces fearful thoughts. Moreover, we argue that retrieval stopping recruits extinction circuitry to achieve affect regulation, linking extinction to how humans cope with intrusive thoughts. We discuss novel hypotheses derived from this theoretical synthesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael C Anderson
- MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
- Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
| | - Stan B Floresco
- Department of Psychology, and Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
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Huerta Sanchez LL, Sankaran M, Li TL, Doan H, Chiu A, Shulman E, Shab G, Kippin TE, Szumlinski KK. Profiling prefrontal cortex protein expression in rats exhibiting an incubation of cocaine craving following short-access self-administration procedures. Front Psychiatry 2022; 13:1031585. [PMID: 36684008 PMCID: PMC9846226 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1031585] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2022] [Accepted: 11/25/2022] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Incubation of drug-craving refers to a time-dependent increase in drug cue-elicited craving that occurs during protracted withdrawal. Historically, rat models of incubated cocaine craving employed extended-access (typically 6 h/day) intravenous drug self-administration (IV-SA) procedures, although incubated cocaine craving is reported to occur following shorter-access IV-SA paradigms. The notoriously low-throughput of extended-access IV-SA prompted us to determine whether two different short-access IV-SA procedures akin to those in the literature result in qualitatively similar changes in glutamate receptor expression and the activation of downstream signaling molecules within prefrontal cortex (PFC) subregions as those reported previously by our group under 6h-access conditions. METHODS For this, adult, male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to intravenously self-administer cocaine for 2 h/day for 10 consecutive days (2-h model) or for 6 h on day 1 and 2 h/day for the remaining 9 days of training (Mixed model). A sham control group was also included that did not self-administer cocaine. RESULTS On withdrawal day 3 or 30, rats were subjected to a 2-h test of cue-reinforced responding in the absence of cocaine and a time-dependent increase in drug-seeking was observed under both IV-SA procedures. Immunoblotting of brain tissue collected immediately following the cue test session indicated elevated phospho-Akt1, phospho-CaMKII and Homer2a/b expression within the prelimbic subregion of the PFC of cocaine-incubated rats. However, we failed to detect incubation-related changes in Group 1 metabotropic glutamate receptor or ionotropic glutamate receptor subunit expression in either subregion. DISCUSSION These results highlight further a role for Akt1-related signaling within the prelimbic cortex in driving incubated cocaine craving, and provide novel evidence supporting a potential role also for CaMKII-dependent signaling through glutamate receptors in this behavioral phenomenon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura L Huerta Sanchez
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
| | - Mathangi Sankaran
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
| | - Taylor L Li
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
| | - Hoa Doan
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
| | - Alvin Chiu
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
| | - Eleanora Shulman
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
| | - Gabriella Shab
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
| | - Tod E Kippin
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States.,Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States.,Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
| | - Karen K Szumlinski
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States.,Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States.,Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
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46
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Fernandez-Leon JA, Engelke DS, Aquino-Miranda G, Goodson A, Rasheed MN, Do Monte FH. Neural correlates and determinants of approach-avoidance conflict in the prelimbic prefrontal cortex. eLife 2021; 10:74950. [PMID: 34913438 PMCID: PMC8853658 DOI: 10.7554/elife.74950] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2021] [Accepted: 12/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
The recollection of environmental cues associated with threat or reward allows animals to select the most appropriate behavioral responses. Neurons in the prelimbic (PL) cortex respond to both threat- and reward-associated cues. However, it remains unknown whether PL regulates threat-avoidance vs. reward-approaching responses when an animals’ decision depends on previously associated memories. Using a conflict model in which male Long–Evans rats retrieve memories of shock- and food-paired cues, we observed two distinct phenotypes during conflict: (1) rats that continued to press a lever for food (Pressers) and (2) rats that exhibited a complete suppression in food seeking (Non-pressers). Single-unit recordings revealed that increased risk-taking behavior in Pressers is associated with persistent food-cue responses in PL, and reduced spontaneous activity in PL glutamatergic (PLGLUT) neurons during conflict. Activating PLGLUT neurons in Pressers attenuated food-seeking responses in a neutral context, whereas inhibiting PLGLUT neurons in Non-pressers reduced defensive responses and increased food approaching during conflict. Our results establish a causal role for PLGLUT neurons in mediating individual variability in memory-based risky decision-making by regulating threat-avoidance vs. reward-approach behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Douglas S Engelke
- Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, United States
| | - Guillermo Aquino-Miranda
- Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, United States
| | | | - Maria N Rasheed
- Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, United States
| | - Fabricio H Do Monte
- Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, United States
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Anderson EM, Demis S, Wrucke B, Engelhardt A, Hearing MC. Infralimbic cortex pyramidal neuron GIRK signaling contributes to regulation of cognitive flexibility but not affect-related behavior in male mice. Physiol Behav 2021; 242:113597. [PMID: 34536435 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2021.113597] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2021] [Revised: 08/30/2021] [Accepted: 09/13/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Dysfunction of the infralimbic cortical (ILC) region of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is thought to be an underlying factor in both affect- and cognition-related behavioral deficits that co-occur across neuropsychiatric disorders. Increasing evidence highlights pathological imbalances in prefrontal pyramidal neuron excitability and associated aberrant firing as an underlying factor in this dysfunction. G protein-gated inwardly rectifying K+ (GIRK/Kir3) channels mediate excitability of mPFC pyramidal neurons, however the functional role of these channels in ILC-dependent regulation of behavior and pyramidal neuron excitation is unknown. The present study used a viral-cre approach in male mice harboring a 'floxed' version of the kcnj3 (Girk1) gene, to disrupt GIRK1-containing channel expression in pyramidal neurons within the ILC. Loss of GIRK1-dependent signaling increased excitability and spike firing of pyramidal neurons but did not alter affective behavior measured in an elevated plus maze, forced swim test, or progressive ratio test of motivation. Alternatively, ablation of GIRK1 impaired performance in an operant-based attentional set-shifting task designed to assess cognitive flexibility. These data highlight a unique role for GIRK1 signaling in ILC pyramidal neurons in the regulation of strategy shifting but not affect and suggest that these channels may represent a therapeutic target for treatment of cognitive deficits in neuropsychiatric disease.
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48
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Nett KE, LaLumiere RT. Infralimbic cortex functioning across motivated behaviors: Can the differences be reconciled? Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2021; 131:704-721. [PMID: 34624366 PMCID: PMC8642304 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.10.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2021] [Revised: 09/10/2021] [Accepted: 10/02/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
The rodent infralimbic cortex (IL) is implicated in higher order executive functions such as reward seeking and flexible decision making. However, the precise nature of its role in these processes is unclear. Early evidence indicated that the IL promotes the extinction and ongoing inhibition of fear conditioning and cocaine seeking. However, evidence spanning other behavioral domains, such as natural reward seeking and habit-based learning, suggests a more nuanced understanding of IL function. As techniques have advanced and more studies have examined IL function, identifying a unifying explanation for its behavioral function has become increasingly difficult. Here, we discuss evidence of IL function across motivated behaviors, including associative learning, drug seeking, natural reward seeking, and goal-directed versus habit-based behaviors, and emphasize how context-specific encoding and heterogeneous IL neuronal populations may underlie seemingly conflicting findings in the literature. Together, the evidence suggests that a major IL function is to facilitate the encoding and updating of contingencies between cues and behaviors to guide subsequent behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelle E Nett
- Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, United States.
| | - Ryan T LaLumiere
- Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, United States; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, United States; Iowa Neuroscience Institute, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, United States
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49
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Feng XY, Hu HD, Chen J, Long C, Yang L, Wang L. Acute neuroinflammation increases excitability of prefrontal parvalbumin interneurons and their functional recruitment during novel object recognition. Brain Behav Immun 2021; 98:48-58. [PMID: 34403738 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2021.08.216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2021] [Revised: 08/07/2021] [Accepted: 08/09/2021] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
There is an emerging body of literature suggesting that unlike the chronic neuroinflammatory response, acute neuroinflammation is self-regulated and is beneficial for central nervous system homeostasis and cognitive integrity. However, the neurophysiological alterations upon acute neuroinflammation and their implications on cognitive function remain poorly understood. In the present study, we reliably established a mouse model of acute and self-limiting neuroinflammation by administering a single intraperitoneal injection of low-dose lipopolysaccharide, which induced reversible sickness behavior and increased pro-inflammatory cytokine expression in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). During acute neuroinflammation, fast-spiking parvalbumin-expressing interneurons (PV interneurons) in the mPFC exhibited a hyperexcitable phenotype exemplified by increased input resistance, decreased rheobase current, and a higher frequency of action potentials. Furthermore, PV interneurons in the prelimbic subregion of the mPFC were excessively recruited into circuits supporting novel object recognition memory, which remained intact after acute neuroinflammation. Together, our findings suggest that alterations in PV neuronal excitability resulting from acute neuroinflammation may mediate neuronal recruitment and confer a beneficial outcome on functional integrity of NOR circuit in the mPFC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiao-Yi Feng
- Precise Genome Engineering Center, School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China
| | - Hai-Dong Hu
- School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China
| | - Jian Chen
- School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China
| | - Cheng Long
- School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China
| | - Li Yang
- Precise Genome Engineering Center, School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
| | - Lei Wang
- Precise Genome Engineering Center, School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
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50
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Roughley S, Killcross S. The role of the infralimbic cortex in decision making processes. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2021.06.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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