Genetics of Cognition Laboratory, Neuroscience area, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy.
Bioclinicum, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Nat Neurosci. 2024 Jul;27(7):1318-1332. doi: 10.1038/s41593-024-01647-x. Epub 2024 May 20.
Emotion recognition and the resulting responses are important for survival and social functioning. However, how socially derived information is processed for reliable emotion recognition is incompletely understood. Here, we reveal an evolutionarily conserved long-range inhibitory/excitatory brain network mediating these socio-cognitive processes. Anatomical tracing in mice revealed the existence of a subpopulation of somatostatin (SOM) GABAergic neurons projecting from the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) to the retrosplenial cortex (RSC). Through optogenetic manipulations and Ca imaging fiber photometry in mice and functional imaging in humans, we demonstrate the specific participation of these long-range SOM projections from the mPFC to the RSC, and an excitatory feedback loop from the RSC to the mPFC, in emotion recognition. Notably, we show that mPFC-to-RSC SOM projections are dysfunctional in mouse models relevant to psychiatric vulnerability and can be targeted to rescue emotion recognition deficits in these mice. Our findings demonstrate a cortico-cortical circuit underlying emotion recognition.
情绪识别及其产生的反应对于生存和社交功能至关重要。然而，对于可靠的情绪识别，社会衍生信息是如何被处理的，目前还不完全清楚。在这里，我们揭示了一个进化保守的长程抑制/兴奋脑网络，介导这些社会认知过程。在小鼠中的解剖追踪揭示了存在一小群生长抑素（SOM）GABA 能神经元，它们从内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC）投射到后扣带皮层（RSC）。通过在小鼠中进行光遗传学操作和 Ca 成像光纤光度测定，以及在人类中进行功能成像，我们证明了这些来自 mPFC 到 RSC 的长程 SOM 投射的特定参与，以及来自 RSC 到 mPFC 的兴奋性反馈回路，在情绪识别中。值得注意的是，我们表明，与精神脆弱性相关的小鼠模型中 mPFC 到 RSC 的 SOM 投射功能失调，并且可以针对这些小鼠的情绪识别缺陷进行靶向治疗。我们的研究结果表明了情绪识别的皮质-皮质回路。
