Article
Behavioral Sciences
Louise Urien, Nicole Stein, Abigail Ryckman, Lindsey Bell, Elizabeth P. Bauer
Summary: The study focused on the role of BNST-AL in fear expression in male rats, revealing an upregulation of the ARC gene in BNST-AL specifically in male rats during fear expression. Excitotoxic lesions of the BNST reduced context fear expression in both sexes, suggesting that females may recruit different BNST subnuclei for fear and anxiety-like behaviors.
NEUROBIOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MEMORY
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Rachel Chudoba, Joanna Dabrowska
Summary: Defensive behaviors in response to threats are common across the animal kingdom. Different populations of CRF neurons in the CeA and BNST play divergent but complementary roles in mediating defensive responses, such as vigilance, avoidance, and active escape. Understanding the contributions of specific CRF neurons is important for understanding their dysregulation in fear and anxiety disorders.
Article
Neurosciences
Biborka Bruzsik, Laszlo Biro, Dora Zelena, Eszter Sipos, Huba Szebik, Klara Rebeka Sarosdi, Orsolya Horvath, Imre Farkas, Veronika Csillag, Cintia Klaudia Finszter, Eva Mikics, Mate Toth
Summary: Excessive fear learning and generalized, extinction-resistant fear memories are core symptoms of anxiety and trauma-related disorders. Activation of GABAergic neurons of BNST during fear conditioning or memory consolidation resulted in enhanced cue-related fear recall. The findings suggest significant modulation of fear memory strength by specific circuits of the BNST.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Louise Urien, Stacey Cohen, Sophia Howard, Alexandrina Yakimov, Rachel Nordlicht, Elizabeth P. Bauer
Summary: Many anxiety disorders are characterized by abnormal threat detection and learning, as well as the inability to reduce fear responses in non-threatening environments. The vSUB-BNST pathway plays an important role in eliciting appropriate responses to contexts and is modulated by context fear conditioning.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Marcin Piechota, Urszula Skupio, Malgorzata Borczyk, Barbara Ziolkowska, Slawomir Golda, Lukasz Szumiec, Klaudia Szklarczyk-Smolana, Wiktor Bilecki, Jan Manuel Rodriguez Parkitna, Michal Korostynski
Summary: The expression of Ca2+/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase I gamma (Camk1g) is regulated by stress and glucocorticoid receptors (GR) in neuronal cells of the limbic system. It is involved in anxiety-related behaviors and responses conditioned by aversive stimuli.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Einat Elharrar, Yahav Dikshtein, Sapir Meninger-Mordechay, Yehuda Lichtenstein, Gal Yadid
Summary: Recent research shows that inhibiting PARP-1 activity can interfere with fear conditioning and reduce freezing behavior. By controlling the pharmacokinetic timing, it is possible to specifically disrupt cue-associated fear memories without interfering with other natural memories.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Mitjan Morr, Jeanine Noell, Daphne Sassin, Jule Daniels, Alexandra Philipsen, Benjamin Becker, Birgit Stoffel-Wagner, Rene Hurlemann, Dirk Scheele
Summary: Loneliness may contribute to vulnerability to intrusive memories after trauma in healthy men, with altered limbic processing of fear signals being a potential underlying mechanism. Lonely men showed more intrusions and altered amygdala activity, while loneliness did not have the same impact on women.
Review
Neurosciences
Claire Emily Young, Qingchun Tong
Summary: The bed nuclei of the stria terminalis (BST) is a crucial brain region involved in anxiety processing and HPA axis activation. Research has found that BST CRH neurons in rodents can induce both anxiogenic and anxiolytic effects, interacting with other neurons to influence anxiety responses and substance-seeking behavior. Further studies into BST CRH signaling pathways are essential for addressing the societal and economic burdens of anxiety, mood, and substance use disorders.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Goran Simic, Mladenka Tkalcic, Vana Vukic, Damir Mulc, Ena Spanic, Marina Sagud, Francisco E. Olucha-Bordonau, Mario Vuksic, Patrick R. Hof
Summary: Emotions are generated by activations of specific neuronal populations in the cerebral cortex, while feelings are conscious emotional experiences of these activations that contribute to enhancing neuronal networks mediating thoughts, language, and behavior. Contemporary theories of emotion highlight the central role of the amygdala as a subcortical emotional brain structure.
Editorial Material
Cell Biology
James Johnson, Zheng Li
Summary: Psychosocial stress can lead to mitochondrial impairment in mice, triggering the PINK1-PRKN/parkin mitophagy pathway in the amygdala and resulting in increased anxiety. Mitochondrial deficiency in the basolateral amygdalae can cause anxiety-like behaviors.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Allison R. Foilb, Gabriella N. Sansaricq, Emily E. Zona, Kayla Fernando, John P. Christianson
Summary: The study reveals reduced fear expression to safe cues in females compared to males and the crucial role of the central amygdala in discrimination abilities in both sexes, as well as the sex differences in the anterior medial bed nucleus of the stria terminalis in the discrimination condition.
BEHAVIOURAL BRAIN RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Jun Liu, Longnian Lin, Dong Wang
Summary: Specific BLA neurons exhibit increased firing rates, accompanied by increased heart rate and freezing, in response to height threats. These neurons are only activated under height threats, not other conditions, and develop conditioned responses to the context after fear conditioning, indicating a convergence in processing of dangerous/risky contextual information.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Jessica T. Jacobs, Rafael S. Maior, Hannah F. Waguespack, Carolina Campos-Rodriguez, Patrick A. Forcelli, Ludise Malkova
Summary: The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is involved in various social behaviors, including aggression, maternal care, mating behavior, and social interaction. Activation of the BNST has been shown to reduce social interaction between unfamiliar animals in rodent studies. However, the role of the BNST in social interaction in primates has not been investigated. By temporarily inactivating the BNST in male macaque monkeys, we found that BNST inactivation led to a significant increase in social interaction, accompanied by an increase in passive contact and a significant decrease in locomotion.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Nadia Kaouane, Sibel Ada, Marlene Hausleitner, Wulf Haubensak
Summary: The dorsal BNST plays a crucial role in fear and reward behaviors, with its neuronal output pathways exhibiting opposite effects on these behaviors. Optogenetic activation of different BNST neurons can either increase reward seeking or reduce freezing responses, suggesting a complex interplay between fear and reward processing within the BNST.
FRONTIERS IN NEURAL CIRCUITS
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Kyuhyun Choi, Kyungjoon Park, Soonje Lee, Jee Hyun Yi, Changsu Woo, Shin Jung Kang, Ki Soon Shin
Summary: The lateral amygdala (LA) is a main sensory input site from the cortical and thalamic regions, which strongly projects to the basal amygdala (BA). Our study found that high-frequency stimulation ex vivo resulted in long-term potentiation (LTP) and enhanced neurotransmitter release at LA-BA synapses. Auditory fear conditioning also led to presynaptic facilitation at LA-BA synapses, with no changes in the AMPA/NMDA current ratio, suggesting the involvement of presynaptic mechanisms in fear conditioning.
BIOCHEMICAL AND BIOPHYSICAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Yang He, Jun Tang, Meng Zhang, Junjie Ying, Dezhi Mu
Summary: This study investigated the protective effects and mechanisms of human placenta derived mesenchymal stem cells (hPMSCs) transplantation in a rat model of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). The results showed that hPMSCs transplantation reduced apoptosis and improved long-term neurological prognosis. Furthermore, the downregulation of Sema 3A/NRP-1 expression and activation of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway played a key role in the protective effects of hPMSCs.
Article
Neurosciences
Emily L. Isenstein, Edward G. Freedman, Jiayi Xu, Ian A. DeAndrea-Lazarus, John J. Foxe
Summary: This study evaluated electrophysiological discrimination of parametric somatosensory stimuli in healthy young adults to understand how the brain processes the duration of tactile information. The results showed that participants did not electrophysiologically discriminate between 100 and 115 ms, but they exhibited distinct electrophysiological responses when the deviant stimuli were 130, 145, and 160 ms. These findings contribute to a better understanding of tactile sensitivity in different clinical conditions.
Article
Neurosciences
Juliana R. Souza, Ludmila Lima-Silveira, Daniela Accorsi-Mendonca, Benedito H. Machado
Summary: This study demonstrates that A2A receptors play a crucial role in modulating synaptic transmission in the NTS neurons and are required for the enhancement of glutamatergic transmission observed under short-term sustained hypoxia conditions.
Article
Neurosciences
Miki Hashizume, Rina Ito, Rie Suge, Yasushi Hojo, Gen Murakami, Takayuki Murakoshi
Summary: The basolateral amygdaloid complex (BLA) is closely involved in the formation of emotional memories, including both aversive memory and contextual fear memory. Acute sleep deprivation (SD) disrupts the acquisition of tone-associated fear memory in juvenile rats, but has no significant effect on contextual fear memory. Slow network oscillation in the amygdala contributes to the formation of amygdala-dependent fear memory in relation to sleep.
Article
Neurosciences
Qunxian Wang, Shipeng Guo, Dongjie Hu, Xiangjun Dong, Zijun Meng, Yanshuang Jiang, Zijuan Feng, Weihui Zhou, Weihong Song
Summary: GSDME plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease by regulating the switch from apoptosis to pyroptosis and participating in neuroinflammatory response. Knockdown of GSDME has been shown to improve cognitive impairments, indicating that GSDME could be a therapeutic target for Alzheimer's disease.