Repeated stress triggers seeking of a starvation-like state in anxiety-prone female mice.

Elevated anxiety often precedes anorexia nervosa and persists after weight restoration. Patients with anorexia nervosa often describe self-starvation as pleasant, potentially because food restriction can be anxiolytic. Here, we tested whether repeated stress can cause animals to prefer a starvation-like state. We developed a virtual reality place preference paradigm in which head-fixed mice can voluntarily seek a starvation-like state induced by optogenetic stimulation of hypothalamic agouti-related peptide (AgRP) neurons. Prior to stress exposure, males but not females showed a mild aversion to AgRP stimulation. Strikingly, following multiple days of stress, a subset of females developed a strong preference for AgRP stimulation that was predicted by high baseline anxiety. Such stress-induced changes in preference were reflected in changes in facial expressions during AgRP stimulation. Our study suggests that stress may cause females predisposed to anxiety to seek a starvation state and provides a powerful experimental framework for investigating the underlying neural mechanisms.

A spatially-resolved transcriptional atlas of the murine dorsal pons at single-cell resolution.

The "dorsal pons", or "dorsal pontine tegmentum" (dPnTg), is part of the brainstem. It is a complex, densely packed region whose nuclei are involved in regulating many vital functions. Notable among them are the parabrachial nucleus, the Kölliker Fuse, the Barrington nucleus, the locus coeruleus, and the dorsal, laterodorsal, and ventral tegmental nuclei. In this study, we applied single-nucleus RNA-seq (snRNA-seq) to resolve neuronal subtypes based on their unique transcriptional profiles and then used multiplexed error robust fluorescence in situ hybridization (MERFISH) to map them spatially. We sampled ~1 million cells across the dPnTg and defined the spatial distribution of over 120 neuronal subtypes. Our analysis identified an unpredicted high transcriptional diversity in this region and pinpointed the unique marker genes of many neuronal subtypes. We also demonstrated that many neuronal subtypes are transcriptionally similar between humans and mice, enhancing this study's translational value. Finally, we developed a freely accessible, GPU and CPU-powered dashboard ( http://harvard.heavy.ai:6273/ ) that combines interactive visual analytics and hardware-accelerated SQL into a data science framework to allow the scientific community to query and gain insights into the data.

Sensitization of meningeal afferents to locomotion-related meningeal deformations in a migraine model.

Migraine headache is hypothesized to involve the activation and sensitization of trigeminal sensory afferents that innervate the cranial meninges. To better understand migraine pathophysiology and improve clinical translation, we used two-photon calcium imaging via a closed cranial window in awake mice to investigate changes in the responses of meningeal afferent fibers using a preclinical model of migraine involving cortical spreading depolarization (CSD). A single CSD episode caused a seconds-long wave of calcium activation that propagated across afferents and along the length of individual afferents. Surprisingly, unlike previous studies in anesthetized animals with exposed meninges, only a very small afferent population was persistently activated in our awake mouse preparation, questioning the relevance of this neuronal response to the onset of migraine pain. In contrast, we identified a larger subset of meningeal afferents that developed augmented responses to acute three-dimensional meningeal deformations that occur in response to locomotion bouts. We observed increased responsiveness in a subset of afferents that were already somewhat sensitive to meningeal deformation before CSD. Furthermore, another subset of previously insensitive afferents also became sensitive to meningeal deformation following CSD. Our data provides new insights into the mechanisms underlying migraine, including the emergence of enhanced meningeal afferent responses to movement-related meningeal deformations as a potential neural substrate underlying the worsening of migraine headache during physical activity.

Transient cAMP production drives rapid and sustained spiking in brainstem parabrachial neurons to suppress feeding.

Brief stimuli can trigger longer-lasting brain states. G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) could help sustain such states by coupling slow-timescale molecular signals to neuronal excitability. Brainstem parabrachial nucleus glutamatergic (PBNGlut) neurons regulate sustained brain states such as pain and express Gs-coupled GPCRs that increase cAMP signaling. We asked whether cAMP in PBNGlut neurons directly influences their excitability and effects on behavior. Both brief tail shocks and brief optogenetic stimulation of cAMP production in PBNGlut neurons drove minutes-long suppression of feeding. This suppression matched the duration of prolonged elevations in cAMP, protein kinase A (PKA) activity, and calcium activity in vivo and ex vivo, as well as sustained, PKA-dependent increases in action potential firing ex vivo. Shortening this elevation in cAMP reduced the duration of feeding suppression following tail shocks. Thus, molecular signaling in PBNGlut neurons helps prolong neural activity and behavioral states evoked by brief, salient bodily stimuli.

Cortical reactivations predict future sensory responses.

Many theories of offline memory consolidation posit that the pattern of neurons activated during a salient sensory experience will be faithfully reactivated, thereby stabilizing the pattern1,2. However, sensory-evoked patterns are not stable but, instead, drift across repeated experiences3-6. Here, to investigate the relationship between reactivations and the drift of sensory representations, we imaged the calcium activity of thousands of excitatory neurons in the mouse lateral visual cortex. During the minute after a visual stimulus, we observed transient, stimulus-specific reactivations, often coupled with hippocampal sharp-wave ripples. Stimulus-specific reactivations were abolished by local cortical silencing during the preceding stimulus. Reactivations early in a session systematically differed from the pattern evoked by the previous stimulus-they were more similar to future stimulus response patterns, thereby predicting both within-day and across-day representational drift. In particular, neurons that participated proportionally more or less in early stimulus reactivations than in stimulus response patterns gradually increased or decreased their future stimulus responses, respectively. Indeed, we could accurately predict future changes in stimulus responses and the separation of responses to distinct stimuli using only the rate and content of reactivations. Thus, reactivations may contribute to a gradual drift and separation in sensory cortical response patterns, thereby enhancing sensory discrimination7.

Sensory cortical ensembles exhibit differential coupling to ripples in distinct hippocampal subregions.

Cortical neurons activated during recent experiences often reactivate with dorsal hippocampal CA1 ripples during subsequent rest. Less is known about cortical interactions with intermediate hippocampal CA1, whose connectivity, functions, and ripple events differ from dorsal CA1. We identified three clusters of putative excitatory neurons in mouse visual cortex that are preferentially excited together with either dorsal or intermediate CA1 ripples or suppressed before both ripples. Neurons in each cluster were evenly distributed across primary and higher visual cortices and co-active even in the absence of ripples. These ensembles exhibited similar visual responses but different coupling to thalamus and pupil-indexed arousal. We observed a consistent activity sequence preceding and predicting ripples: (1) suppression of ripple-suppressed cortical neurons, (2) thalamic silence, and (3) activation of intermediate CA1-ripple-activated cortical neurons. We propose that coordinated dynamics of these ensembles relay visual experiences to distinct hippocampal subregions for incorporation into different cognitive maps.

A spatially-resolved transcriptional atlas of the murine dorsal pons at single-cell resolution.

The "dorsal pons", or "dorsal pontine tegmentum" (dPnTg), is part of the brainstem. It is a complex, densely packed region whose nuclei are involved in regulating many vital functions. Notable among them are the parabrachial nucleus, the Kölliker Fuse, the Barrington nucleus, the locus coeruleus, and the dorsal, laterodorsal, and ventral tegmental nuclei. In this study, we applied single-nucleus RNA-seq (snRNA-seq) to resolve neuronal subtypes based on their unique transcriptional profiles and then used multiplexed error robust fluorescence in situ hybridization (MERFISH) to map them spatially. We sampled ~1 million cells across the dPnTg and defined the spatial distribution of over 120 neuronal subtypes. Our analysis identified an unpredicted high transcriptional diversity in this region and pinpointed many neuronal subtypes' unique marker genes. We also demonstrated that many neuronal subtypes are transcriptionally similar between humans and mice, enhancing this study's translational value. Finally, we developed a freely accessible, GPU and CPU-powered dashboard (http://harvard.heavy.ai:6273/) that combines interactive visual analytics and hardware-accelerated SQL into a data science framework to allow the scientific community to query and gain insights into the data.

A collaboration between immune cells and the choroid plexus epithelium in brain inflammation.

The choroid plexus (ChP) is a vital brain barrier and source of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Here, we use chronic two-photon imaging in awake mice and single-cell transcriptomics to demonstrate that in addition to these roles, the ChP is a complex immune organ that regulates brain inflammation. In a mouse meningitis model, neutrophils and monocytes accumulated in ChP stroma and surged across the epithelial barrier into the CSF. Bi-directional recruitment of monocytes from the periphery and, unexpectedly, macrophages from the CSF to the ChP helped eliminate neutrophils and repair the barrier. Transcriptomic analyses detailed the molecular steps accompanying this process, including the discovery of epithelial cells that transiently specialized to nurture immune cells, coordinate their recruitment, survival, and differentiation, and ultimately, control the opening/closing of the ChP brain barrier. Collectively, we provide a new conceptual understanding and comprehensive roadmap of neuroinflammation at the ChP brain barrier.

Competition between stochastic neuropeptide signals calibrates the rate of satiation.

We investigated how transmission of hunger- and satiety-promoting neuropeptides, NPY and αMSH, is integrated at the level of intracellular signaling to control feeding. Receptors for these peptides use the second messenger cAMP. How cAMP integrates opposing peptide signals to regulate energy balance, and the in vivo spatiotemporal dynamics of endogenous peptidergic signaling, remain largely unknown. We show that AgRP axon stimulation in the paraventricular hypothalamus evokes probabilistic NPY release that triggers stochastic cAMP decrements in downstream MC4R-expressing neurons (PVHMC4R). Meanwhile, POMC axon stimulation triggers stochastic, αMSH-dependent cAMP increments. Release of either peptide impacts a ~100 µm diameter region, and when these peptide signals overlap, they compete to control cAMP. The competition is reflected by hunger-state-dependent differences in the amplitude and persistence of cAMP transients: hunger peptides are more efficacious in the fasted state, satiety peptides in the fed state. Feeding resolves the competition by simultaneously elevating αMSH release and suppressing NPY release, thereby sustaining elevated cAMP in PVHMC4R neurons. In turn, cAMP potentiates feeding-related excitatory inputs and promotes satiation across minutes. Our findings highlight how biochemical integration of opposing, quantal peptide signals during energy intake orchestrates a gradual transition between stable states of hunger and satiety.

Sensitization of meningeal afferents to locomotion-related meningeal deformations in a migraine model.

Migraine headache is hypothesized to involve the activation and sensitization of trigeminal sensory afferents that innervate the cranial meninges. To better understand migraine pathophysiology and improve clinical translation, we used two-photon calcium imaging via a closed cranial window in awake mice to investigate changes in the responses of meningeal afferent fibers using a preclinical model of migraine involving cortical spreading depolarization (CSD). A single CSD episode caused a seconds-long wave of calcium activation that propagated across afferents and along the length of individual afferents. Surprisingly, unlike previous studies in anesthetized animals with exposed meninges, only a very small afferent population was persistently activated in our awake mouse preparation, questioning the relevance of this neuronal response to the onset of migraine pain. In contrast, we identified a larger subset of meningeal afferents that developed augmented responses to acute three-dimensional meningeal deformations that occur in response to locomotion bouts. We observed increased responsiveness in a subset of afferents that were already somewhat sensitive to meningeal deformation before CSD. Furthermore, another subset of previously insensitive afferents also became sensitive to meningeal deformation following CSD. Our data provides new insights into the mechanisms underlying migraine, including the emergence of enhanced meningeal afferent responses to movement-related meningeal deformations as a potential neural substrate underlying the worsening of migraine headache during physical activity.

Neurobiology of eating behavior, nutrition, and health.

Eating behavior and food-related decision making are among the most complex of the motivated behaviors, and understanding the neurobiology of eating behavior, and its developmental dynamics, is critical to advancing the nutritional sciences and public health. Recent advances from both human and animal studies are revealing that individual capacity to make health-promoting food decisions varies based on biological and physiological variation in the signaling pathways that regulate the homeostatic, hedonic, and executive functions; past developmental exposures and current life-stage; the food environment; and complications of chronic disease that reinforce the obese state. Eating rate drives increased calorie intake and represents an important opportunity to lower rates of food consumption and energy intake through product reformulation. Understanding human eating behaviors and nutrition in the context of neuroscience can strengthen the evidence base from which dietary guidelines are derived and can inform policies, practices, and educational programs in a way that increases the likelihood they are adopted and effective for reducing rates of obesity and other diet-related chronic disease.

Competition between stochastic neuropeptide signals calibrates the rate of satiation.

We investigated how transmission of hunger- and satiety-promoting neuropeptides, NPY and αMSH, is integrated at the level of intracellular signaling to control feeding. Receptors for these peptides use the second messenger cAMP, but the messenger's spatiotemporal dynamics and role in energy balance are controversial. We show that AgRP axon stimulation in the paraventricular hypothalamus evokes probabilistic and spatially restricted NPY release that triggers stochastic cAMP decrements in downstream MC4R-expressing neurons (PVH MC4R ). Meanwhile, POMC axon stimulation triggers stochastic, αMSH-dependent cAMP increments. NPY and αMSH competitively control cAMP, as reflected by hunger-state-dependent differences in the amplitude and persistence of cAMP transients evoked by each peptide. During feeding bouts, elevated αMSH release and suppressed NPY release cooperatively sustain elevated cAMP in PVH MC4R neurons, thereby potentiating feeding-related excitatory inputs and promoting satiation across minutes. Our findings highlight how state-dependent integration of opposing, quantal peptidergic events by a common biochemical target calibrates energy intake.

Defining diurnal fluctuations in mouse choroid plexus and CSF at high molecular, spatial, and temporal resolution.

Transmission and secretion of signals via the choroid plexus (ChP) brain barrier can modulate brain states via regulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) composition. Here, we developed a platform to analyze diurnal variations in male mouse ChP and CSF. Ribosome profiling of ChP epithelial cells revealed diurnal translatome differences in metabolic machinery, secreted proteins, and barrier components. Using ChP and CSF metabolomics and blood-CSF barrier analyses, we observed diurnal changes in metabolites and cellular junctions. We then focused on transthyretin (TTR), a diurnally regulated thyroid hormone chaperone secreted by the ChP. Diurnal variation in ChP TTR depended on Bmal1 clock gene expression. We achieved real-time tracking of CSF-TTR in awake TtrmNeonGreen mice via multi-day intracerebroventricular fiber photometry. Diurnal changes in ChP and CSF TTR levels correlated with CSF thyroid hormone levels. These datasets highlight an integrated platform for investigating diurnal control of brain states by the ChP and CSF.

Chronic stress triggers seeking of a starvation-like state in anxiety-prone female mice.

Elevated anxiety often precedes anorexia nervosa and persists after weight restoration. Patients with anorexia nervosa often describe hunger as pleasant, potentially because food restriction can be anxiolytic. Here, we tested whether chronic stress can cause animals to prefer a starvation-like state. We developed a virtual reality place preference paradigm in which head-fixed mice can voluntarily seek a starvation-like state induced by optogenetic stimulation of hypothalamic agouti-related peptide (AgRP) neurons. Prior to stress induction, male but not female mice showed mild aversion to AgRP stimulation. Strikingly, following chronic stress, a subset of females developed a strong preference for AgRP stimulation that was predicted by high baseline anxiety. Such stress-induced changes in preference were reflected in changes in facial expressions during AgRP stimulation. Our study suggests that stress may cause females predisposed to anxiety to seek a starvation state, and provides a powerful experimental framework for investigating the underlying neural mechanisms.

Transient cAMP production drives rapid and sustained spiking in brainstem parabrachial neurons to suppress feeding.

Brief stimuli can trigger longer lasting brain states. G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) could help sustain such states by coupling slow-timescale molecular signals to neuronal excitability. Brainstem parabrachial nucleus glutamatergic neurons (PBN Glut ) regulate sustained brain states such as pain, and express G s -coupled GPCRs that increase cAMP signaling. We asked whether cAMP directly influences PBN Glut excitability and behavior. Both brief tail shocks and brief optogenetic stimulation of cAMP production in PBN Glut neurons drove minutes-long suppression of feeding. This suppression matched the duration of prolonged elevations in cAMP, Protein Kinase A (PKA), and calcium activity in vivo and in vitro. Shortening this elevation in cAMP reduced the duration of feeding suppression following tail shocks. cAMP elevations in PBN Glut neurons rapidly lead to sustained increases in action potential firing via PKA-dependent mechanisms. Thus, molecular signaling in PBN Glut neurons helps prolong neural activity and behavioral states evoked by brief, salient bodily stimuli.

Sensory cortical ensembles exhibit differential coupling to ripples in distinct hippocampal subregions.

Cortical neurons activated during recent experiences often reactivate with dorsal hippocampal CA1 sharp-wave ripples (SWRs) during subsequent rest. Less is known about cortical interactions with intermediate hippocampal CA1, whose connectivity, functions, and SWRs differ from those of dorsal CA1. We identified three clusters of visual cortical excitatory neurons that are excited together with either dorsal or intermediate CA1 SWRs, or suppressed before both SWRs. Neurons in each cluster were distributed across primary and higher visual cortices and co-active even in the absence of SWRs. These ensembles exhibited similar visual responses but different coupling to thalamus and pupil-indexed arousal. We observed a consistent activity sequence: (i) suppression of SWR-suppressed cortical neurons, (ii) thalamic silence, and (iii) activation of the cortical ensemble preceding and predicting intermediate CA1 SWRs. We propose that the coordinated dynamics of these ensembles relay visual experiences to distinct hippocampal subregions for incorporation into different cognitive maps.

Choroid plexus-targeted NKCC1 overexpression to treat post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus.

Post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus (PHH) refers to a life-threatening accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that occurs following intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH). An incomplete understanding of this variably progressive condition has hampered the development of new therapies beyond serial neurosurgical interventions. Here, we show a key role for the bidirectional Na-K-Cl cotransporter, NKCC1, in the choroid plexus (ChP) to mitigate PHH. Mimicking IVH with intraventricular blood led to increased CSF [K+] and triggered cytosolic calcium activity in ChP epithelial cells, which was followed by NKCC1 activation. ChP-targeted adeno-associated viral (AAV)-NKCC1 prevented blood-induced ventriculomegaly and led to persistently increased CSF clearance capacity. These data demonstrate that intraventricular blood triggered a trans-choroidal, NKCC1-dependent CSF clearance mechanism. Inactive, phosphodeficient AAV-NKCC1-NT51 failed to mitigate ventriculomegaly. Excessive CSF [K+] fluctuations correlated with permanent shunting outcome in humans following hemorrhagic stroke, suggesting targeted gene therapy as a potential treatment to mitigate intracranial fluid accumulation following hemorrhage.

Brainstem serotonin neurons selectively gate retinal information flow to thalamus.

Retinal ganglion cell (RGC) types relay parallel streams of visual feature information. We hypothesized that neuromodulators might efficiently control which visual information streams reach the cortex by selectively gating transmission from specific RGC axons in the thalamus. Using fiber photometry recordings, we found that optogenetic stimulation of serotonergic axons in primary visual thalamus of awake mice suppressed ongoing and visually evoked calcium activity and glutamate release from RGC boutons. Two-photon calcium imaging revealed that serotonin axon stimulation suppressed RGC boutons that responded strongly to global changes in luminance more than those responding only to local visual stimuli, while the converse was true for suppression induced by increases in arousal. Converging evidence suggests that differential expression of the 5-HT1B receptor on RGC presynaptic terminals, but not differential density of nearby serotonin axons, may contribute to the selective serotonergic gating of specific visual information streams before they can activate thalamocortical neurons.

Trigeminal afferents sense locomotion-related meningeal deformations.

The trigeminal sensory innervation of the cranial meninges is thought to serve a nociceptive function and mediate headache pain. However, the activity of meningeal afferents under natural conditions in awake animals remains unexplored. Here, we used two- and three-dimensional two-photon calcium imaging to track the activity of meningeal afferent fibers in awake mice. Surprisingly, a large subset of afferents was activated during non-noxious conditions such as locomotion. We estimated locomotion-related meningeal deformations and found afferents with distinct dynamics and tuning to various levels of meningeal expansion, compression, shearing, and Z-axis motion. Further, these mechanosensitive afferents were often tuned to distinct directions of meningeal expansion or compression. Thus, in addition to their role in headache-related pain, meningeal sensory neurons track the dynamic mechanical state of the meninges under natural conditions.

Visual association cortex links cues with conjunctions of reward and locomotor contexts.

Postrhinal cortex (POR) and neighboring lateral visual association areas are necessary for identifying objects and interpreting them in specific contexts, but how POR neurons encode the same object across contexts remains unclear. Here, we imaged excitatory neurons in mouse POR across tens of days prior to and throughout initial cue-reward learning and reversal learning. We assessed responses to the same cue when it was rewarded or unrewarded, during both locomotor and stationary contexts. Surprisingly, a large class of POR neurons were minimally cue-driven prior to learning. After learning, distinct clusters within this class responded selectively to a given cue when presented in a specific conjunction of reward and locomotion contexts. In addition, another class contained clusters of neurons whose cue responses were more transient, insensitive to reward learning, and adapted over thousands of presentations. These two classes of POR neurons may support context-dependent interpretation and context-independent identification of sensory cues.