Article
|
Open Access
Featured
-
-
Article
| Open AccessVentral tegmental area GABA neurons mediate stress-induced blunted reward-seeking in mice
Acute stress transiently disrupts reward-seeking behaviour and repeated stress exposure produces lasting anhedonia-like behaviour in rodents. Here, the authors show that stress triggers GABAergic activity in the ventral tegmental area which blunts reward-seeking behaviour in mice.
- Daniel C. Lowes
- , Linda A. Chamberlin
- & Alexander Z. Harris
-
Article
| Open AccessInfant gut microbiome composition is associated with non-social fear behavior in a pilot study
Experimental manipulation of the gut microbiome in animal models impacts fear behaviours. Here, the authors show in a pilot study that features of the human infant gut microbiome are associated with non-social fear behaviours during a laboratory based assessment.
- Alexander L. Carlson
- , Kai Xia
- & Rebecca C. Knickmeyer
-
Article
| Open AccessOxytocin and vasopressin within the ventral and dorsal lateral septum modulate aggression in female rats
Aggression in females is understudied in model organisms. Here, the authors establish a model of enhanced aggression in virgin female rats and show that oxytocin and vasopressin systems differentially modulate aggression in distinct neuronal populations of the lateral septum of female rats.
- Vinícius Elias de Moura Oliveira
- , Michael Lukas
- & Inga D. Neumann
-
Article
| Open AccessPosterior subthalamic nucleus (PSTh) mediates innate fear-associated hypothermia in mice
Innate and learned fear can induce rapid changes in body temperature of mammals. The authors identify the posterior subthalamic nucleus as a major thermoregulatory hub that connects the external lateral parabrachial subnucleus to the nucleus of the solitary tract to mediate fear-evoked hypothermia.
- Can Liu
- , Chia-Ying Lee
- & Qinghua Liu
-
Article
| Open AccessBreathing-driven prefrontal oscillations regulate maintenance of conditioned-fear evoked freezing independently of initiation
Combining optogenetics, behavioral modelling and neural population analysis, the authors show in mice that during fear-related freezing the olfactory bulb transmits 4 Hz breathing rhythm to the prefrontal cortex where this oscillation organizes local activity and regulates freezing episode duration.
- Sophie Bagur
- , Julie M. Lefort
- & Karim Benchenane
-
Article
| Open AccessSex differences in fear memory consolidation via Tac2 signaling in mice
The Tachykinin 2 (Tac2) pathway in the central amygdala is sufficient and necessary for modulating fear memory consolidation. The authors show that silencing Tac2 neurons in the amygdala of male mice reduces fear expression, while fear expression in female mice is increased when manipulations are made during proestrus.
- A. Florido
- , E. R. Velasco
- & R. Andero
-
Article
| Open AccessSingle cell plasticity and population coding stability in auditory thalamus upon associative learning
How thalamic sensory relays participate in plasticity upon associative fear learning and stable long-term sensory coding remains unknown. The authors show that auditory thalamus neurons exhibit heterogeneous plasticity patterns after learning while population level encoding of auditory stimuli remains stable across days.
- James Alexander Taylor
- , Masashi Hasegawa
- & Jan Gründemann
-
Article
| Open AccessInhibitory neurotransmission drives endocannabinoid degradation to promote memory consolidation
Endocannabinoid levels are controlled by the fine balance between their synthesis and degradation. Here, the authors show that memory formation through fear conditioning selectively accelerates the degradation of endocannabinoids in the cerebellum via a lasting increase in GABA release.
- Christophe J. Dubois
- , Jessica Fawcett-Patel
- & Siqiong June Liu
-
Article
| Open AccessDistinct dynamics of social motivation drive differential social behavior in laboratory rat and mouse strains
Laboratory rat and mouse strains serve as animal models to explore brain mechanisms underlying social behavior. Here, the authors describe differences in social behavior between commonly used rat and mouse strains, which may reflect distinct dynamics of social motivation.
- Shai Netser
- , Ana Meyer
- & Shlomo Wagner
-
Article
| Open AccessOver-activation of primate subgenual cingulate cortex enhances the cardiovascular, behavioral and neural responses to threat
Alexander et al. causally implicate over-activity in primate subgenual cingulate in affective and cardiovascular dysfunction relevant to anxiety and depression. Over-activation led to elevated activity in a stress-related network whilst decreasing activity in higher-order prefrontal cognitive regions.
- Laith Alexander
- , Christian M. Wood
- & Angela C. Roberts
-
Article
| Open AccessBidirectional control of fear memories by cerebellar neurons projecting to the ventrolateral periaqueductal grey
The cerebellum has a role in motor control, but may also contribute to other functions. Here the authors demonstrate a role for the cerebellar fastigial nucleus projection onto ventrolateral periaqueductal grey neurons during fear acquisition.
- Jimena Laura Frontera
- , Hind Baba Aissa
- & Daniela Popa
-
Article
| Open AccessGenome-wide translational profiling of amygdala Crh-expressing neurons reveals role for CREB in fear extinction learning
Fear and fear extinction learning are dynamic. These dynamic changes are underlined by transcriptional changes. Here, the authors translationally profiled Crh neurons in the amygdala and and identified relevant gene networks.
- Kenneth M. McCullough
- , Chris Chatzinakos
- & Kerry J. Ressler
-
Article
| Open AccessCircuit-specific hippocampal ΔFosB underlies resilience to stress-induced social avoidance
Chronic stress is a risk factor for mood disorders, yet the molecular and circuit mechanisms of stress-induced changes are not well understood. Here, the authors report the role of the transcription factor ΔFosB in driving activity changes in response to stress in glutamatergic neurons in the ventral hippocampus that project to nucleus accumben.
- Andrew L. Eagle
- , Claire E. Manning
- & Alfred J. Robison
-
Article
| Open AccessCocaine-mediated circadian reprogramming in the striatum through dopamine D2R and PPARγ activation
Drugs of abuse have been shown to perturb circadian rhythms. Here, the authors show in mice that cocaine exposure modulates circadian gene expression in the striatum through a previously unappreciated pathway that involves dopamine D2 receptors and the nuclear receptor PPARγ.
- Karen Brami-Cherrier
- , Robert G. Lewis
- & Emiliana Borrelli
-
Article
| Open AccessA discrete serotonergic circuit regulates vulnerability to social stress
Serotonin is important in depression-like behavior. Here the authors show that dorsal raphe neurons that project to the ventral tegmental area are involved in regulating stress responses in mice.
- Wen-Jun Zou
- , Yun-Long Song
- & Tian-Ming Gao
-
Article
| Open AccessPlacebos without deception reduce self-report and neural measures of emotional distress
There is controversy about whether placebos without deception cause real psychobiological benefits. Here, the authors show that the positive effects of placebos without deception are more than response bias by providing evidence they can reduce self-report and neural measures of emotional distress.
- Darwin A. Guevarra
- , Jason S. Moser
- & Ethan Kross
-
Article
| Open AccessContextual fear memory retrieval by correlated ensembles of ventral CA1 neurons
The vCA1-BA projection is enriched in shock responsive neurons, which are necessary for fear memory encoding and become correlated with a network of neurons during retrieval. Here the authors show that the magnitude of vCA1 correlated activity is proportional to memory strength and requires the shock response during encoding.
- Jessica C. Jimenez
- , Jack E. Berry
- & Rene Hen
-
Article
| Open AccessHippocampal seed connectome-based modeling predicts the feeling of stress
Although the feeling of being stressed is ubiquitous and clinically significant, the underlying neural mechanisms are unclear. Using a novel predictive modeling approach, the authors show that functional hippocampal networks specifically and consistently predict the feeling of stress.
- Elizabeth V. Goldfarb
- , Monica D. Rosenberg
- & Rajita Sinha
-
Article
| Open AccessA phenome-wide association and Mendelian Randomisation study of polygenic risk for depression in UK Biobank
Depression is correlated with many brain-related traits. Here, Shen et al. perform phenome-wide association studies of a depression polygenic risk score (PRS) and find associations with 51 behavioural and 26 neuroimaging traits which are further followed up on using Mendelian randomization and mediation analyses.
- Xueyi Shen
- , David M. Howard
- & Andrew M. McIntosh
-
Article
| Open AccessEmotionotopy in the human right temporo-parietal cortex
People can experience a wide variety of emotions, and how the brain represents these varying affective states is a matter of debate. Here the authors show that coding mechanisms of emotions in right temporo-parietal cortex resemble those of low-level stimulus features in primary sensory regions.
- Giada Lettieri
- , Giacomo Handjaras
- & Luca Cecchetti
-
Article
| Open AccessThe rostroventral part of the thalamic reticular nucleus modulates fear extinction
The precise role of the thalamic reticular nucleus in fear is not understood. Here, the authors report that the rostroventral part of the reticular nucleus is involved in the extinction of tone conditioned fear memory through its inhibitory projections to the dorsal midline thalamus.
- Joon-Hyuk Lee
- , Charles-Francois V. Latchoumane
- & Hee-Sup Shin
-
Article
| Open AccessActivity in the dorsal ACC causes deterioration of sequential motor performance due to anxiety
Performance anxiety can impair motor skill, and even affect expert athletes and musicians. Here, the authors show that anxiety affects performance at the ‘junction’ between two well-learned action sequences, and that this affect is associated with activity in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC).
- Gowrishankar Ganesh
- , Takehiro Minamoto
- & Masahiko Haruno
-
Article
| Open AccessDifferent brain networks mediate the effects of social and conditioned expectations on pain
Our experience of pain can be affected by our expectations about how much pain we will feel. Here, the authors show that both social information-driven expectations, and those based on personal experience, are both able to modulate pain, but by different neural pathways.
- Leonie Koban
- , Marieke Jepma
- & Tor D. Wager
-
Article
| Open AccessClosed-loop control of gamma oscillations in the amygdala demonstrates their role in spatial memory consolidation
Gamma oscillations have been proposed to underlie many cognitive and memory processes, but it has proven difficult to directly test this by manipulating them. Here, in rats, the authors show that manipulation of gamma oscillations in the amygdala affects memory consolidation.
- Vasiliki Kanta
- , Denis Pare
- & Drew B. Headley
-
Article
| Open AccessBacteria evoke alarm behaviour in zebrafish
When injured, fish release an alarm substance produced by club cells in the skin that elicits fear in members of their shoal. Here, the authors show that mucus and bacteria are transported from the external surface into club cells, and bacterial components elicit alarm behaviour, acting in concert with a substance from fish.
- Joanne Shu Ming Chia
- , Elena S. Wall
- & Suresh Jesuthasan
-
Article
| Open AccessThe rough sound of salience enhances aversion through neural synchronisation
Certain sounds are especially attention-grabbing and often unpleasant as well. Here, the authors show that fast but perceptible amplitude modulations in the ‘roughness range' (30–150 Hz) are temporally salient and synchronise not just brain auditory networks but also salience-related networks.
- Luc H. Arnal
- , Andreas Kleinschmidt
- & Pierre Mégevand
-
Article
| Open AccessPeople represent their own mental states more distinctly than those of others
The brain can represent the mental states of others, as well as those of the self. Here, the authors show that social brain manifests more distinct activity patterns when thinking about one's own states, compared to those of others, suggesting that we represent our own mind with greater granularity.
- Mark A. Thornton
- , Miriam E. Weaverdyck
- & Diana I. Tamir
-
Article
| Open AccessOptogenetic stimulation of medial prefrontal cortex Drd1 neurons produces rapid and long-lasting antidepressant effects
Ketamine exerts fast-acting anti-depressant responses. Here the authors show that dopamine D1 receptor expressing neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex contribute to these antidepressant-like effects in mice.
- Brendan D. Hare
- , Ryota Shinohara
- & Ronald S. Duman
-
Article
| Open AccessLong time-scales in primate amygdala neurons support aversive learning
During learning of an association between a neutral cue and an aversive stimulus, there is a time lag between trials. Here, the authors examine how long inter-trial intervals are represented by the basolateral amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex to support learning rate and memory strength.
- Aryeh H. Taub
- , Yosef Shohat
- & Rony Paz
-
Article
| Open AccessEthanol facilitates socially evoked memory recall in mice by recruiting pain-sensitive anterior cingulate cortical neurons
Mice have been shown to display a fear response upon observing another mouse undergo fear conditioning. Here, the authors show that ethanol facilitates socially evoked fear memory recall, via pain-responsive neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex.
- Tetsuya Sakaguchi
- , Satoshi Iwasaki
- & Yuji Ikegaya
-
Article
| Open AccessDevelopment of MPFC function mediates shifts in self-protective behavior provoked by social feedback
People insulate themselves against negative social feedback via self-protective behaviors. Here, the authors show that early adolescents react against immediate social feedback, but adults also consider accumulated past negative evaluations, a function mediated by the rostromedial prefrontal cortex (RMPFC).
- Leehyun Yoon
- , Leah H. Somerville
- & Hackjin Kim
-
Article
| Open AccessAnterior cingulate cortex and its input to the basolateral amygdala control innate fear response
Brain circuits that control innate fear response are essential for an animal’s survival. Here, the authors report how the anterior cingulate cortex and its projection to amygdala control the innate fear response in mice.
- Jinho Jhang
- , Hyoeun Lee
- & Jin-Hee Han
-
Article
| Open AccessA dopaminergic switch for fear to safety transitions
Fear memories are overcome only when it is ascertained that fearful responses are not appropriate. Here the authors demonstrate that activity in dopamine neurons is necessary to extinguish fear responses and two distinct dopamine neuron projections exert opposing effects on extinction learning.
- Ray Luo
- , Akira Uematsu
- & Joshua P. Johansen
-
Article
| Open AccessNeuro-computational account of how mood fluctuations arise and affect decision making
Fluctuations in mood are known to affect our decisions. Here the authors propose and validate a model of how mood fluctuations arise through a slow integration of positive and negative feedback and report the resulting key changes in brain activity that modulate our decision making.
- Fabien Vinckier
- , Lionel Rigoux
- & Mathias Pessiglione
-
Article
| Open AccessOlfactory inputs modulate respiration-related rhythmic activity in the prefrontal cortex and freezing behavior
Nasal airflow and olfactory bulb activity are linked to oscillations in cortical areas. This study shows olfactory input and respiration are correlated with oscillation in the prefrontal cortex during freezing behavior in mice, and attenuation of olfactory inputs can increase behavioral freezing.
- Andrew H. Moberly
- , Mary Schreck
- & Minghong Ma
-
Article
| Open AccessA neuronal basis for fear discrimination in the lateral amygdala
When perceiving new stimuli, organisms need to distinguish between threats versus harmless stimuli. Here, the authors find a set of cells in the lateral amygdala that is required to discriminate or generalize new auditory stimuli based on similarity to previously fear-associate sounds.
- Anna Grosso
- , Giulia Santoni
- & Benedetto Sacchetti
-
Article
| Open AccessOxytocin enhances observational fear in mice
Oxytocin modulates social behaviours in mammals. Here the authors demonstrate that observational fear, a measure of empathy-like behaviour in rodents, is modulated by oxytocin.
- Marc T. Pisansky
- , Leah R. Hanson
- & Jonathan C. Gewirtz
-
Article
| Open AccessOrexin modulates behavioral fear expression through the locus coeruleus
Vigilance involves the activation of orexinergic neurons in the lateral hypothalamus (LH-ox). Here the authors report the functional role of a monosynaptically connected circuit with orexinergic neurons connected to noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus which target lateral amygdala neurons and enhance fear expression and generalization.
- Shingo Soya
- , Tohru M. Takahashi
- & Takeshi Sakurai
-
Article
| Open AccessA sexually dimorphic pre-stressed translational signature in CA3 pyramidal neurons of BDNF Val66Met mice
Animals’ response to acute stress is known to be influenced by sex and genetics. Here the authors performed RNA-seq on actively translated mRNAs in hippocampal CA3 neurons in mice, and document the effects of sex and genotype (i.e., BDNF Val66Met) on acute stress-induced gene expression.
- Jordan Marrocco
- , Gordon H. Petty
- & Bruce S. McEwen
-
Article
| Open AccessAnterior cingulate is a source of valence-specific information about value and uncertainty
Rewards or punishments elicit diverse behavioral responses; however, the neural circuits underlying such flexibility are unclear. Here Monosov shows that this diversity could be supported by neurons in the anterior cingulate that represent expected value and uncertainty in a valence-specific manner.
- Ilya E. Monosov
-
Article
| Open AccessNrp2 is sufficient to instruct circuit formation of mitral-cells to mediate odour-induced attractive social responses
Neuropilin 2 (Nrp2) is expressed by a subset of mitral cells in the postero-ventral olfactory bulb in mice. Here the authors show that Nrp2 is sufficient to instruct mitral cell targeting to the anterior part of medial amygdala that modulates olfactory-driven attractive social behaviour.
- Kasumi Inokuchi
- , Fumiaki Imamura
- & Hitoshi Sakano
-
Article
| Open AccessDifferential processing of thalamic information via distinct striatal interneuron circuits
The responses of striatal GABAergic interneurons to thalamic inputs are not well characterised. Here, the authors demonstrate that complex intrastriatal circuitry is responsible for thalamic-evoked monosynaptic and disynaptic excitation in NPY-NGF interneurons but a disynaptic inhibition in the NPY-PLTS.
- Maxime Assous
- , Jaime Kaminer
- & James M. Tepper
-
Article
| Open AccessEndogenous opioids regulate social threat learning in humans
Though humans often learn about negative outcomes from observing the response of others, the neurochemistry underlying this learning is unknown. Here, authors show that blocking opioid receptors enhances social threat learning and describe the brain regions underlying this effect.
- Jan Haaker
- , Jonathan Yi
- & Andreas Olsson
-
Article
| Open AccessThe human amygdala parametrically encodes the intensity of specific facial emotions and their categorical ambiguity
The amygdala processes emotional facial expressions, but its exact contributions are unclear. Wang.et al. use behavioural analysis of amygdala lesion patients, fMRI, and single-neuron recordings to show that both emotional intensity and ambiguity signals are processed in the human amygdala.
- Shuo Wang
- , Rongjun Yu
- & Ueli Rutishauser
-
Article
| Open AccessA retinoraphe projection regulates serotonergic activity and looming-evoked defensive behaviour
Neural circuits underlying innate fear are only partially understood. Huanget al. identify a subset of retinal ganglion cells that project to both the dorsal raphe nucleus and the superior colliculus, and show that these RGCs mediate looming-evoked defensive behaviours in mice.
- Lu Huang
- , Tifei Yuan
- & Chaoran Ren
-
Article
| Open AccessEndocannabinoid signalling modulates susceptibility to traumatic stress exposure
Understanding inter-individual differences in stress-susceptibility could lead to novel treatments and preventative strategies for stress-related pathologies. Here the authors provide evidence that increased endocannabinoid signalling is a resilience factor that buffers against adverse consequences of stress.
- Rebecca J. Bluett
- , Rita Báldi
- & Sachin Patel
-
Article
| Open AccessNMDA-receptor-dependent plasticity in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis triggers long-term anxiolysis
The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is known to modulate anxiety-related behaviours. Here the authors show that excitatory inputs from infralimbic cortex and ventral subiculum/CA1 converge onto the same BNST neurons; stimulation of vSUB/CA1 triggers LTP in BNST and reduces anxiety in rats.
- Christelle Glangetas
- , Léma Massi
- & François Georges
-
Article
| Open AccessAmygdala-hippocampal dynamics during salient information processing
Amygdala and hippocampus are involved in processing motivationally salient stimuli but the precise circuit dynamics of the interaction is not understood. Here the authors show that in response to fearful faces in humans, theta/alpha oscillations in the amygdala modulate hippocampal activity dynamics.
- Jie Zheng
- , Kristopher L. Anderson
- & Jack J. Lin
-
Article
| Open AccessCardiac afferent activity modulates the expression of racial stereotypes
Black individuals are racially stereotyped as threatening but how bodily signals may affect these misperceptions is not known. Here Azevedo and colleagues show that these race-driven responses are affected by the cardiac cycle, being more biased when arterial baroreceptor activation is maximal.
- Ruben T. Azevedo
- , Sarah N. Garfinkel
- & Manos Tsakiris