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A prefrontal-habenular circuitry regulates social fear behaviour.
- Source :
-
Brain : a journal of neurology [Brain] 2024 Jul 04. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jul 04. - Publication Year :
- 2024
- Publisher :
- Ahead of Print
-
Abstract
- The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has been implicated in the pathophysiology of social impairments including social fear. However, the precise subcortical partners that mediate mPFC dysfunction on social fear behaviour have not been identified. Employing a social fear conditioning paradigm, we induced robust social fear in mice and found that the lateral habenula (LHb) neurons and LHb-projecting mPFC neurons are synchronously activated during social fear expression. Moreover, optogenetic inhibition of the mPFC-LHb projection significantly reduced social fear responses. Importantly, consistent with animal studies, we observed an elevated prefrontal-habenular functional connectivity in subclinical individuals with higher social anxiety characterized by heightened social fear. These results unravel a crucial role of the prefrontal-habenular circuitry in social fear regulation and suggest that this pathway could serve as a potential target for the treatment of social fear symptom often observed in many psychiatric disorders.<br /> (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our siteāfor further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1460-2156
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Brain : a journal of neurology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 38963812
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae209