scholarly journals Memory consolidation of fear conditioning: Bi-stable amygdala connectivity with dorsal anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1730-1737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pan Feng ◽  
Tingyong Feng ◽  
Zhencai Chen ◽  
Xu Lei
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Anterior Cingulate

scholarly journals Parvalbumin-positive interneurons mediate neocortical-hippocampal interactions that are necessary for memory consolidation

eLife ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Xia ◽  
Blake A Richards ◽  
Matthew M Tran ◽  
Sheena A Josselyn ◽  
Kaori Takehara-Nishiuchi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Fear Memory ◽  
Contextual Fear Conditioning ◽  
Contextual Fear ◽  
Contextual Fear Memory ◽  
Spiking Activity

Following learning, increased coupling between spindle oscillations in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and ripple oscillations in the hippocampus is thought to underlie memory consolidation. However, whether learning-induced increases in ripple-spindle coupling are necessary for successful memory consolidation has not been tested directly. In order to decouple ripple-spindle oscillations, here we chemogenetically inhibited parvalbumin-positive (PV+) interneurons, since their activity is important for regulating the timing of spiking activity during oscillations. We found that contextual fear conditioning increased ripple-spindle coupling in mice. However, inhibition of PV+ cells in either CA1 or mPFC eliminated this learning-induced increase in ripple-spindle coupling without affecting ripple or spindle incidence. Consistent with the hypothesized importance of ripple-spindle coupling in memory consolidation, post-training inhibition of PV+ cells disrupted contextual fear memory consolidation. These results indicate that successful memory consolidation requires coherent hippocampal-neocortical communication mediated by PV+ cells.

scholarly journals Nucleus reuniens is required for encoding and retrieving precise, hippocampal-dependent contextual fear memories in rats

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karthik R. Ramanathan ◽  
Reed L. Ressler ◽  
Jingji Jin ◽  
Stephen Maren
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Thalamic Nucleus ◽  
Nmda Receptor Antagonist ◽  
Pavlovian Fear Conditioning ◽  
Contextual Memory ◽  
Nucleus Reuniens ◽  
Contextual Fear

AbstractThe nucleus reuniens (RE) is a ventral midline thalamic nucleus that interconnects the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and hippocampus (HPC). Considerable data indicate that HPC-mPFC circuits are involved in contextual and spatial memory; however, it is not clear whether the RE mediates the acquisition or retrieval of these memories. To examine this question, we inactivated the RE with muscimol before either the acquisition or retrieval of Pavlovian fear conditioning in rats; freezing served as the index of fear. We found that RE inactivation before conditioning impaired the acquisition of contextual freezing, whereas inactivation of the RE prior to retrieval testing increased the generalization of freezing to a novel context; inactivation of the RE did not affect either the acquisition or expression of auditory fear conditioning. Interestingly, contextual conditioning impairments were absent when retrieval testing was also conducted after RE inactivation. Contextual memories acquired under RE inactivation were hippocampal-independent, insofar as contextual freezing in rats conditioned under RE inactivation was insensitive to intra-hippocampal infusions of the NMDA receptor antagonist, D,L-amino-5-phosophonovaleric acid (APV). Together, these data reveal that the RE supports hippocampal-dependent encoding of precise contextual memories that allow discrimination of dangerous from safe contexts. When the RE is inactive, however, alternate neural systems acquire an impoverished contextual memory that is only expressed when the RE is offline.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTThe midline thalamic nucleus reuniens (RE) coordinates communication between the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex, brain areas critical for contextual and spatial memory. Here we show that temporary pharmacological inactivation of RE impairs the acquisition and precision of contextual fear memories after Pavlovian fear conditioning in rats. However, inactivating the RE prior to retrieval testing restored contextual memory in rats conditioned after RE inactivation. Critically, we show that imprecise contextual memories acquired under RE inactivation are learned independently of the hippocampus. These data reveal that the RE is required for hippocampal-dependent encoding of precise contextual memories to support the discrimination of safe and dangerous contexts.

scholarly journals Neural mechanisms of economic commitment in the human medial prefrontal cortex

eLife ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantinos Tsetsos ◽  
Valentin Wyart ◽  
S Paul Shorkey ◽  
Christopher Summerfield
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Financial Return ◽  
Economic Decisions ◽  
Decision Biases ◽  
Stimulus Value ◽  
Over Time

Neurobiologists have studied decisions by offering successive, independent choices between goods or gambles. However, choices often have lasting consequences, as when investing in a house or choosing a partner. Here, humans decided whether to commit (by acceptance or rejection) to prospects that provided sustained financial return. BOLD signals in the rostral medial prefrontal cortex (rmPFC) encoded stimulus value only when acceptance or rejection was deferred into the future, suggesting a role in integrating value signals over time. By contrast, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) encoded stimulus value only when participants rejected (or deferred accepting) a prospect. dACC BOLD signals reflected two decision biases–to defer commitments to later, and to weight potential losses more heavily than gains–that (paradoxically) maximised reward in this task. These findings offer fresh insights into the pressures that shape economic decisions, and the computation of value in the medial prefrontal cortex.

scholarly journals Altered heartbeat perception sensitivity associated with brain structural alterations in generalised anxiety disorder

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. e100057 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Li ◽  
Bin Zhang ◽  
Qiang Hu ◽  
Lanlan Zhang ◽  
Yi Jin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Grey Matter ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Grey Matter Volume ◽  
Generalised Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Matter Volume ◽  
Heartbeat Perception

BackgroundPalpitation is a common complaint in generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). Brain imaging studies have investigated the neural mechanism of heartbeat perception in healthy volunteers. This study explored the neuroanatomical differences of altered heartbeat perception in patients with GAD using structural MRI.AimsBased on the strong somatic-interoceptive symptoms in GAD, we explored the regional structural brain abnormalities involved in heartbeat perception in patients with GAD.MethodsThis study was applied to the a priori regions using neuroanatomical theories of heartbeat perception, including the insula, anterior cingulate cortex, supplementary motor area and prefrontal cortex. A total of 19 patients with GAD and 19 healthy control subjects were enrolled. We used the FMRIB Software Library voxel-based morphometry software for estimating the grey matter volume of these regions of interest and analysed the correlation between heartbeat perception sensitivity and the volume of abnormal grey matter.ResultsPatients with GAD showed a significantly decreased volume of grey matter in their left medial prefrontal cortex, right orbital frontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex. The grey matter volume of the left medial prefrontal cortex negatively correlated with heartbeat perception sensitivity in patients with GAD.ConclusionsIt should be the first study that shows heartbeat perception is associated with brain structure in GAD. Our findings suggest that the frontal region may play an important role in aberrant heartbeat perception processing in patients with GAD, and this may be an underlying mechanism resulting in the abnormal cardiovascular complaints in GAD. This is hypothesised as a ‘top-down’ deficiency, especially in the medial prefrontal cortex. This will provide the foundation for a more targeted region for neuromodulation intervention in the future.

scholarly journals Interaction of irritability and anxiety on emotional responding and emotion regulation: a functional MRI study

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Kathleen I. Crum ◽  
Soonjo Hwang ◽  
Karina S. Blair ◽  
Joseph M. Aloi ◽  
Harma Meffert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Emotional Disorders ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Reactivity Index ◽  
Emotional States

Abstract Background Irritability and anxiety frequently co-occur in pediatric populations. Studies separately looking at the neural correlates of these symptoms have identified engagement of similar neural systems – particularly those implicated in emotional processing. Both irritability and anxiety can be considered negative valence emotional states that might relate to emotion dysregulation. However, previous work has not examined the neural responding during the performance of an emotion regulation task as a function of interaction between irritability and anxiety simultaneously. Methods This fMRI study involved 155 participants (90 with significant psychopathologies and 92 male) who performed the Affective Stroop Task, designed to engage emotion regulation as a function of task demands. The Affective Reactivity Index (ARI) was used to index irritability and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) was used to index anxiety. Results Levels of irritability, but not anxiety, was positively correlated with responses to visual images within the right rostro-medial prefrontal cortex and left anterior cingulate cortex during view trials. The second region of ventral anterior cingulate cortex showed a condition-by-emotion-by-ARI score-by-SCARED score interaction. Specifically, anxiety level was significantly correlated with a decreased differential BOLD response to negative relative to neutral view trials but only in the presence of relatively high irritability. Conclusions Atypical maintenance of emotional stimuli within the rostro-medial prefrontal cortex may exacerbate the difficulties faced by adolescents with irritability. Moreover, increased anxiety combined with significant irritability may disrupt an automatic emotional conflict-based form of emotion regulation that is particularly associated with the ventral anterior cingulate cortex.

scholarly journals Early-life blockade of NMDA receptors induces epigenetic abnormalities in the adult medial prefrontal cortex: possible involvement in memory impairment in trace fear conditioning

2019 ◽  
Vol 237 (1) ◽  
pp. 231-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Latusz ◽  
Marzena Maćkowiak
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Nmda Receptors ◽  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Histone H3 ◽  
Protein Levels ◽  
Trace Fear Conditioning ◽  
Trace Fear

Abstract Rationale Several findings indicate that early-life dysfunction of N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors might cause schizophrenia-like abnormalities in adulthood that might be induced by impairments in epigenetic regulation. Objectives In the present study, we investigated whether postnatal blockade of NMDA receptors (within the first 3 weeks of life) by the competitive antagonist CGP 37849 (CGP) might affect some epigenetic markers in the adult medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Methods Histone H3 phosphorylation at serine 10 (H3S10ph), histone H3 acetylation at lysine 9 or 14 (H3K9ac or H3K14ac, respectively), or expression of histone deacetylase (HDAC) 2, HDAC5, myocyte enhancer factor (MEF) 2D and activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein (Arc) were analysed. Moreover, we also evaluated whether the deacetylase inhibitor sodium butyrate (SB; 1.2 mg/kg, ip) could prevent behavioural and neurochemical changes in the mPFC induced by CGP during memory retrieval in the trace fear conditioning paradigm. Results The results showed that CGP administration increased the number of H3S10ph nuclei but did not affect H3K9ac and H3K14ac or HDAC2 protein levels. However, CGP administration altered the HDAC5 mRNA and protein levels and increased the mRNA and protein levels of MEF2D. CGP also increased Arc mRNA, which was correlated with an increase in the amount of Arc DNA bound to MEF2D. SB given 2 h after training prevented impairment of the freezing response and disruption of epigenetic markers (H3S10ph, HDAC5, MEF2D) and Arc expression during memory retrieval induced by CGP administration. Conclusions The early-life blockade of NMDA receptors impairs some epigenetic regulatory processes in the mPFC that are involved in fear memory formation.

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