scholarly journals Theta oscillations synchronize human medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala during fear learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (34) ◽  
pp. eabf4198
Author(s):  
Si Chen ◽  
Zheng Tan ◽  
Wenran Xia ◽  
Carlos Alexandre Gomes ◽  
Xilei Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Theta Oscillations ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
General Mechanism ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Amygdala Activity ◽  
Intracranial Electroencephalography ◽  
Patients With Epilepsy

Numerous animal studies have demonstrated that fear acquisition and expression rely on the coordinated activity of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and amygdala and that theta oscillations support interregional communication within the fear network. However, it remains unclear whether these results can be generalized to fear learning in humans. We addressed this question using intracranial electroencephalography recordings in 13 patients with epilepsy during a fear conditioning paradigm. We observed increased power and inter-regional synchronization of amygdala and mPFC in theta (4 to 8 hertz) oscillations for conditioned stimulus (CS+) versus CS−. Analysis of information flow revealed that the dorsal mPFC (dmPFC) led amygdala activity in theta oscillations. Last, a computational model showed that trial-by-trial changes in amygdala theta oscillations predicted the model-based associability (i.e., learning rate). This study provides compelling evidence that theta oscillations within and between amygdala, ventral mPFC, and dmPFC constitute a general mechanism of fear learning across species.

scholarly journals Novel Inferences in a Multidimensional Social Network Use a Grid-like Code

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seongmin A. Park ◽  
Douglas S. Miller ◽  
Erie D. Boorman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Entorhinal Cortex ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Cognitive Map ◽  
General Mechanism ◽  
Temporoparietal Junction ◽  
Flexible Behavior ◽  
Discrete Problems

ABSTRACTGeneralizing experiences to guide decision making in novel situations is a hallmark of flexible behavior. It has been hypothesized such flexibility depends on a cognitive map of an environment or task, but directly linking the two has proven elusive. Here, we find that discretely sampled abstract relationships between entities in an unseen two-dimensional (2-D) social hierarchy are reconstructed into a unitary 2-D cognitive map in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. We further show that humans utilize a grid-like code in several brain regions, including entorhinal cortex and medial prefrontal cortex, for inferred direct trajectories between entities in the reconstructed abstract space during discrete decisions. Moreover, these neural grid-like codes in the entorhinal cortex predict neural decision value computations in the medial prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction area during choice. Collectively, these findings show that grid-like codes are used by the human brain to infer novel solutions, even in abstract and discrete problems, and suggest a general mechanism underpinning flexible decision making and generalization.

scholarly journals Estradiol Modulates Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Amygdala Activity During Fear Extinction in Women and Female Rats

2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (10) ◽  
pp. 920-927 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed A. Zeidan ◽  
Sarah A. Igoe ◽  
Clas Linnman ◽  
Antonia Vitalo ◽  
John B. Levine ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Fear Extinction ◽  
Female Rats ◽  
Amygdala Activity

scholarly journals A Decade of Progress in Deep Brain Stimulation of the Subcallosal Cingulate for the Treatment of Depression

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 3260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharafuddin Khairuddin ◽  
Fung Yin Ngo ◽  
Wei Ling Lim ◽  
Luca Aquili ◽  
Naveed Ahmed Khan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Deep Brain Stimulation ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Brain Stimulation ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Treatment Of Depression ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Deep Brain

Major depression contributes significantly to the global disability burden. Since the first clinical study of deep brain stimulation (DBS), over 446 patients with depression have now undergone this neuromodulation therapy, and 29 animal studies have investigated the efficacy of subgenual cingulate DBS for depression. In this review, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the progress of DBS of the subcallosal cingulate in humans and the medial prefrontal cortex, its rodent homolog. For preclinical animal studies, we discuss the various antidepressant-like behaviors induced by medial prefrontal cortex DBS and examine the possible mechanisms including neuroplasticity-dependent/independent cellular and molecular changes. Interestingly, the response rate of subcallosal cingulate Deep brain stimulation marks a milestone in the treatment of depression. DBS achieved response and remission rates of 64–76% and 37–63%, respectively, from clinical studies monitoring patients from 6–24 months. Although some studies showed its stimulation efficacy was limited, it still holds great promise as a therapy for patients with treatment-resistant depression. Overall, further research is still needed, including more credible clinical research, preclinical mechanistic studies, precise selection of patients, and customized electrical stimulation paradigms.

scholarly journals Running exercise protects oligodendrocytes in the medial prefrontal cortex in chronic unpredictable stress rat model

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanmin Luo ◽  
Qian Xiao ◽  
Jin Wang ◽  
Lin Jiang ◽  
Menglan Hu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Rat Model ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Treadmill Running ◽  
Male Rats ◽  
Structural Basis ◽  
Chronic Unpredictable Stress ◽  
Running Exercise ◽  
Beneficial Effects

AbstractPrevious postmortem and animal studies have shown decreases in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) volume and the number of glial cells in the PFC of depression. Running exercise has been shown to alleviate depressive symptoms. However, the effects of running exercise on the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) volume and oligodendrocytes in the mPFC of depressed patients and animals have not been investigated. To address these issues, adult male rats were subjected to chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) for 5 weeks, followed by treadmill running for 6 weeks. Then, the mPFC volume and the mPFC oligodendrocytes were investigated using stereology, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence and western blotting. Using a CUS paradigm that allowed for the analysis of anhedonia, we found that running exercise alleviated the deficits in sucrose preference, as well as the decrease in the mPFC volume. Meanwhile, we found that running exercise significantly increased the number of CNPase+ oligodendrocytes and Olig2+ oligodendrocytes, reduced the ratio between Olig2+/NG2+ oligodendrocytes and Olig2+ oligodendrocytes and increased myelin basic protein (MBP), CNPase and Olig2 protein expression in the mPFC of the CUS rat model. However, running exercise did not change NG2+ oligodendrocyte number in the mPFC in these rats. These results indicated that running exercise promoted the differentiation of oligodendrocytes and myelin-forming ability in the mPFC in the context of depression. These findings suggest that the beneficial effects of running exercise on mPFC volume and oligodendrocytes in mPFC might be an important structural basis for the antidepressant effects of running exercise.

scholarly journals Allergen-induced anxiety-like behavior is associated with disruption of medial prefrontal cortex - amygdala circuit

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kolsoum Dehdar ◽  
Shirin Mahdidoust ◽  
Morteza Salimi ◽  
Leila Gholami-Mahtaj ◽  
Milad Nazari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Allergic Inflammation ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Dynamic Interactions ◽  
Behavioral Expression ◽  
Amygdala Activity ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Impact

AbstractAnxiety is prevalent in asthma, and is associated with disease severity and poor quality of life. However, no study to date provides direct experimental evidence for the effect of allergic inflammation on the structure and function of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and amygdala, which are essential regions for modulating anxiety and its behavioral expression. We assessed the impact of ovalbumin (OVA)-induced allergic inflammation on the appearance of anxiety-like behavior, mPFC and amygdala volumes using MRI, and the mPFC-amygdala circuit activity in sensitized rats. Our findings exhibited that the OVA challenge in sensitized rats induced anxiety-like behavior, and led to more activated microglia and astrocytes in the mPFC and amygdala. We also found a negative correlation between anxiety-like behavior and amygdala volume. Moreover, OVA challenge in sensitized rats was associated with increases in mPFC and amygdala activity, elevation of amygdala delta-gamma coupling, and the enhancement of functional connectivity within mPFC-amygdala circuit – accompanied by an inverted direction of information transferred from the amygdala to the mPFC. We indicated that disrupting the dynamic interactions of the mPFC-amygdala circuit may contribute to the induction of anxiety-related behaviors with asthma. These findings could provide new insight to clarify the underlying mechanisms of allergic inflammation-induced psychiatric disorders related to asthma.

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