101. Repeated Exposure to Multiple Concurrent Stresses Induce Circuit Specific Loss of Inputs to the Posterior Parietal Cortex
- Author
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Gyorgy Lur, Daim Tabba, Tamara Jafar, Mona Fariborzi, Ali Ozgur, and Yaaqov Libovner
- Subjects
Male ,0301 basic medicine ,1.2 Psychological and socioeconomic processes ,Inbred C57BL ,Medical and Health Sciences ,Functional Laterality ,Visual processing ,Mice ,Cognition ,0302 clinical medicine ,Parietal Lobe ,multimodal stress ,Chronic stress ,Research Articles ,Spatial Memory ,Pediatric ,Muscimol ,General Neuroscience ,Immunohistochemistry ,Mental Health ,Memory, Short-Term ,Neurological ,Visual Perception ,Excitatory postsynaptic potential ,retrograde tracing ,Restraint, Physical ,posterior parietal cortex ,visuospatial working memory ,1.1 Normal biological development and functioning ,Posterior parietal cortex ,Sensory system ,Restraint ,Biology ,Stress ,Basic Behavioral and Social Science ,03 medical and health sciences ,Memory ,Underpinning research ,Behavioral and Social Science ,Physical ,synapse loss ,Animals ,Eye Disease and Disorders of Vision ,GABA Agonists ,chronic stress ,Neurology & Neurosurgery ,Working memory ,Psychology and Cognitive Sciences ,Neurosciences ,Multisensory integration ,Brain Disorders ,Electrophysiological Phenomena ,Mice, Inbred C57BL ,Optogenetics ,030104 developmental biology ,Short-Term ,Synapses ,Psychological ,Nerve Net ,Noise ,Neuroscience ,Stress, Psychological ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
Severe loss of excitatory synapses in key brain regions is thought to be one of the major mechanisms underlying stress-induced cognitive impairment. To date, however, the identity of the affected circuits remains elusive. Here we examined the effect of exposure to repeated multiple concurrent stressors (RMS) on the connectivity of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) in adolescent male mice. We found that RMS led to layer-specific elimination of excitatory synapses with the most pronounced loss observed in deeper cortical layers. Quantitative analysis of cortical projections to the PPC revealed a significant loss of sensory and retrosplenial inputs to the PPC while contralateral and frontal projections were preserved. These results were confirmed by decreased synaptic strength from sensory, but not from contralateral, projections in stress-exposed animals. Functionally, RMS disrupted visuospatial working memory performance, implicating disrupted higher-order visual processing. These effects were not observed in mice subjected to restraint-only stress for an identical period of time. The PPC is considered to be a cortical hub for multisensory integration, working memory, and perceptual decision-making. Our data suggest that sensory information streams targeting the PPC may be impacted by recurring stress, likely contributing to stress-induced cognitive impairment.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTRepeated exposure to stress profoundly impairs cognitive functions like memory, attention, or decision-making. There is emerging evidence that stress not only impacts high-order regions of the brain, but may affect earlier stages of cognitive processing. Our work focuses on the posterior parietal cortex, a brain region supporting short-term memory, multisensory integration, and decision-making. We show evidence that repeated stress specifically damages sensory inputs to this region. This disruption of synaptic connectivity is linked to working memory impairment and is specific to repeated exposure to multiple stressors. Altogether, our data provide a potential alternative explanation to ailments previously attributed to downstream, cognitive brain structures.
- Published
- 2020