A prefrontal-habenular circuitry regulates social fear behaviour.
Brain
; 2024 Jul 04.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38963812
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.
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Brain
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
China