Hintiryan Houri, Rudd Mitchell, Nanda Sumit, Gutierrez Adriana E, Lo Darrick, Boesen Tyler, Garcia Luis, Sun Jiandong, Estrada Christian, Mun Hyun-Seung, Yamashita Seita, Han Yeji E, Bowman Ian, Gou Lin, Cao Chunru, Gonzalez Jennifer, Moradi Keivan, Zhao Qiuying, Yenokian Inga, Dev Aishwarya, Zingg Brian, Xu Hanpeng, Xue Qing, Zhu Muye, Liu Lijuan, Chen Xin, Yun Zhixi, Peng Hanchuan, Foster Nicholas N, Dong Hong-Wei
UCLA Brain Research & Artificial Intelligence Nexus (B.R.A.I.N.), Department of Neurobiology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 1;16(1):6018. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60774-6.
Currently, classification of neuron types in the mouse thalamus remains largely incomplete. The anterior thalamic nuclei (ATN), a Papez circuit component, encompass the anterodorsal (AD), anteroventral (AV), and anteromedial (AM) thalamic nuclei. Structurally, the ATN facilitate communication among the neocortex, hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus. Functionally, they play pivotal roles in learning, memory, spatial navigation, and goal-directed behaviors. Therefore, the ATN provide a promising avenue to investigate the relationship between structural and functional complexity with neuron type diversity. In male mice, comprehensive, systematically collected, pathway tracing data revealed several connectionally unique ATN cell populations, suggesting multiple parallel subnetworks run through each nucleus. Further, we applied genetic sparse labeling, brain clearing, 3D microscopic imaging, and computational informatics to morphologically characterize and catalog ATN neuron types. This study provides insights into how the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala interact through neuron type-specific ATN subnetworks to coordinate cognitive and emotional aspects of goal-directed behavior.
目前，小鼠丘脑神经元类型的分类在很大程度上仍不完整。前丘脑核（ATN）是帕佩兹环路的一个组成部分，包括前背侧（AD）、前腹侧（AV）和前内侧（AM）丘脑核。在结构上，ATN促进新皮层、海马体、杏仁核和下丘脑之间的交流。在功能上，它们在学习、记忆、空间导航和目标导向行为中发挥关键作用。因此，ATN为研究结构和功能复杂性与神经元类型多样性之间的关系提供了一条有前景的途径。在雄性小鼠中，全面、系统收集的通路追踪数据揭示了几个连接上独特的ATN细胞群，表明多个并行子网贯穿每个核。此外，我们应用基因稀疏标记、脑清除、三维显微成像和计算信息学对ATN神经元类型进行形态学表征和分类。这项研究深入探讨了前额叶皮层、海马体和杏仁核如何通过特定神经元类型的ATN子网相互作用，以协调目标导向行为的认知和情感方面。
