Franklin Tamara B, Silva Bianca A, Perova Zinaida, Marrone Livia, Masferrer Maria E, Zhan Yang, Kaplan Angie, Greetham Louise, Verrechia Violaine, Halman Andreas, Pagella Sara, Vyssotski Alexei L, Illarionova Anna, Grinevich Valery, Branco Tiago, Gross Cornelius T
Mouse Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Monterotondo, Italy.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
Nat Neurosci. 2017 Feb;20(2):260-270. doi: 10.1038/nn.4470. Epub 2017 Jan 9.
The prefrontal cortex helps adjust an organism's behavior to its environment. In particular, numerous studies have implicated the prefrontal cortex in the control of social behavior, but the neural circuits that mediate these effects remain unknown. Here we investigated behavioral adaptation to social defeat in mice and uncovered a critical contribution of neural projections from the medial prefrontal cortex to the dorsal periaqueductal gray, a brainstem area vital for defensive responses. Social defeat caused a weakening of functional connectivity between these two areas, and selective inhibition of these projections mimicked the behavioral effects of social defeat. These findings define a specific neural projection by which the prefrontal cortex can control and adapt social behavior.
前额叶皮层有助于使生物体的行为适应其环境。特别是，大量研究表明前额叶皮层参与社会行为的控制，但介导这些效应的神经回路仍不清楚。在这里，我们研究了小鼠对社会挫败的行为适应，并发现了从内侧前额叶皮层到导水管周围灰质背侧的神经投射的关键作用，导水管周围灰质是对防御反应至关重要的脑干区域。社会挫败导致这两个区域之间的功能连接减弱，对这些投射的选择性抑制模拟了社会挫败的行为效应。这些发现确定了前额叶皮层可以控制和适应社会行为的特定神经投射。
