Bai Fuhai, Huang Lu, Deng Jiao, Long Zonghong, Hao Xianglin, Chen Penghui, Wu Guangyan, Wen Huizhong, Deng Qiangting, Bao Xiaohang, Huang Jing, Yang Ming, Li Defeng, Ren Yukun, Zhang Min, Xiong Ying, Li Hong
Department of Anesthesiology, Xinqiao Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing 400037, China.
Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Xijing Hospital, Air Force Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710032, China.
iScience. 2023 Aug 25;26(10):107718. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107718. eCollection 2023 Oct 20.
Controlling aggression is a vital skill in social species such as rodents and humans and has been associated with the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). In this study, we showed that during aggressive behavior, the activity of GABAergic neurons in the prelimbic area (PL) of the mPFC was significantly suppressed. Specific activation of GABAergic PL neurons significantly curbed male-to-male aggression and inhibited conditioned place preference (CPP) for aggression-paired contexts, whereas specific inhibition of GABAergic PL neurons brought about the opposite effect. Moreover, GABAergic projections from PL neurons to the lateral hypothalamus (LH) orexinergic neurons mediated aggressive behavior. Finally, directly modulated LH-orexinergic neurons influence aggressive behavior. These results suggest that GABAergic PL-orexinergic LH projection is an important control circuit for intermale aggressive behavior, both of which could be targets for curbing aggression.
控制攻击性是啮齿动物和人类等社会性物种的一项重要技能，并且与内侧前额叶皮质（mPFC）有关。在本研究中，我们发现，在攻击行为期间，mPFC前边缘区（PL）的γ-氨基丁酸能（GABAergic）神经元的活动被显著抑制。特异性激活GABAergic PL神经元可显著抑制雄性对雄性的攻击，并抑制对与攻击配对情境的条件性位置偏爱（CPP），而特异性抑制GABAergic PL神经元则产生相反的效果。此外，从PL神经元到外侧下丘脑（LH）食欲素能神经元的GABAergic投射介导了攻击行为。最后，直接调节LH-食欲素能神经元会影响攻击行为。这些结果表明，GABAergic PL-食欲素能LH投射是雄性间攻击行为的一个重要控制回路，二者都可能是抑制攻击的靶点。
