Oxytocin is important for social interactions and maternal behavior. However, little is known about when, where, and how oxytocin modulates neural circuits to improve social cognition. Here we show how oxytocin enables pup retrieval behavior in female mice by enhancing auditory cortical pup call responses. Retrieval behavior required left but not right auditory cortex, was accelerated by oxytocin in left auditory cortex, and oxytocin receptors were preferentially expressed in left auditory cortex. Neural responses to pup calls were lateralized, with co-tuned and temporally-precise excitatory and inhibitory responses in left cortex of maternal but not pup-naive adults. Finally, pairing calls with oxytocin enhanced responses by balancing the magnitude and timing of inhibition with excitation. Our results describe fundamental synaptic mechanisms by which oxytocin increases the salience of acoustic social stimuli. Furthermore, oxytocin-induced plasticity provides a biological basis for lateralization of auditory cortical processing.

Neural circuits that determine the perception and modulation of pain remain poorly understood. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) provides top-down control of sensory and affective processes. While animal and human imaging studies have shown that the PFC is involved in pain regulation, its exact role in pain states remains incompletely understood. A key output target for the PFC is the nucleus accumbens (NAc), an important component of the reward circuitry. Interestingly, recent human imaging studies suggest that the projection from the PFC to the NAc is altered in chronic pain. The function of this corticostriatal projection in pain states, however, is not known. Here we show that optogenetic activation of the PFC produces strong antinociceptive effects in a rat model (spared nerve injury model) of persistent neuropathic pain. PFC activation also reduces the affective symptoms of pain. Furthermore, we show that this pain-relieving function of the PFC is likely mediated by projections to the NAc. Thus, our results support a novel role for corticostriatal circuitry in pain regulation.

Summary Synapses are plastic and can be modified by changes of spike timing. While most studies of long-term synaptic plasticity focus on excitation, inhibitory plasticity may be critical for controlling information processing, memory storage, and overall excitability in neural circuits. Here we examine spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) of inhibitory synapses onto layer 5 neurons in slices of mouse auditory cortex, together with concomitant STDP of excitatory synapses. Pairing pre- and postsynaptic spikes potentiated inhibitory inputs irrespective of precise temporal order within ~10 msec. This was in contrast to excitatory inputs, which displayed an asymmetrical STDP time window. These combined synaptic modifications both required NMDA receptor activation, and adjusted the excitatory-inhibitory ratio of events paired together with postsynaptic spiking. Finally, subthreshold events became suprathreshold, and the time window between excitation and inhibition became more precise. These findings demonstrate that cortical inhibitory plasticity requires interactions with co-activated excitatory synapses to properly regulate excitatory-inhibitory balance.

Summary Aggression is a prevalent behavior in the animal kingdom that is used to settle competition for limited resources. Given the high risk associated with fighting, the central nervous system has evolved an active mechanism to modulate its expression. Lesioning the lateral septum (LS) is known to cause “septal rage”, a phenotype characterized by a dramatic increase in the frequency of attacks. To understand the circuit mechanism of the LS-mediated modulation of aggression, we examined the influence of the LS input onto the cells in/around the ventrolateral part of the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMHvl)—a region required for male mouse aggression. We found that the inputs from the LS inhibited the attack-excited cells but surprisingly increased the overall activity of attack-inhibited cells. Furthermore, optogenetic activation of the projection from LS cells to the VMHvl terminated ongoing attacks immediately but had little effect on mounting. Thus the LS projection to the ventromedial hypothalamic area represents an effective pathway for suppressing male aggression.

Depression is a salient emotional feature of chronic pain. Depression alters the pain threshold and impairs functional recovery. To date, however, there has been limited understanding of synaptic or circuit mechanisms that regulate depression in the pain state. Here, we demonstrate that depression-like behaviors are induced in a rat model of chronic neuropathic pain. Using this model, we show that chronic pain selectively increases the level of GluA1 subunits of AMPA-type glutamate receptors at the synapses of the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a key component of the brain reward system. We find, in addition, that this increase in GluA1 levels leads to the formation of calcium-permeable AMPA receptors (CPARs). Surprisingly, pharmacologic blockade of these CPARs in the NAc increases depressionlike behaviors associated with pain. Consistent with these findings, an AMPA receptor potentiator delivered into the NAc decreases pain-induced depression. These results show that transmission through CPARs in the NAc represents a novel molecular mechanism modulating the depressive symptoms of pain, and thus CPARs may be a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of pain-induced depression. More generally, these findings highlight the role of central glutamate signaling in pain states and define the brain reward system as an important region for the regulation of depressive symptoms of pain.

SummaryLong-term modifications of neuronal connections are critical for reliable memory storage in the brain. However, their locus of expression—pre- or postsynaptic—is highly variable. Here we introduce a theoretical framework in which long-term plasticity performs an optimization of the postsynaptic response statistics toward a given mean with minimal variance. Consequently, the state of the synapse at the time of plasticity induction determines the ratio of pre- and postsynaptic modifications. Our theory explains the experimentally observed expression loci of the hippocampal and neocortical synaptic potentiation studies we examined. Moreover, the theory predicts presynaptic expression of long-term depression, consistent with experimental observations. At inhibitory synapses, the theory suggests a statistically efficient excitatory-inhibitory balance in which changes in inhibitory postsynaptic response statistics specifically target the mean excitation. Our results provide a unifying theory for understanding the expression mechanisms and functions of long-term synaptic transmission plasticity.

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The mechanisms by which natural rewards such as sugar affect synaptic transmission and behavior are largely unexplored. Here, we investigate regulation of nucleus accumbens synapses by sucrose intake. Previous studies have shown that AMPA receptor trafficking is a major mechanism for regulating synaptic strength, and that in vitro, trafficking of AMPA receptors containing the GluA1 subunit takes place by a two-step mechanism involving extrasynaptic and then synaptic receptor transport. We report that in rat, repeated daily ingestion of a 25% sucrose solution transiently elevated spontaneous locomotion and potentiated accumbens core synapses through incorporation of Ca2+-permeable AMPA receptors (CPARs), which are GluA1-containing, GluA2-lacking AMPA receptors. Electrophysiological, biochemical and quantitative electron microscopy studies revealed that sucrose training (7 days) induced a stable (>24 hr) intraspinous GluA1 population, and that in these rats a single sucrose stimulus rapidly (5 min) but transiently (<24 hr) elevated GluA1 at extrasynaptic sites. CPARs and dopamine D1 receptors were required in vivo for elevated locomotion after sucrose ingestion. Significantly, a 7-day protocol of daily ingestion of a 3% solution of saccharin, a non-caloric sweetener, induced synaptic GluA1 similarly to 25% sucrose ingestion. These findings identify multi-step GluA1 trafficking, previously described in vitro, as a mechanism for acute regulation of synaptic transmission in vivo by a natural orosensory reward. Trafficking is stimulated by a chemosensory pathway that is not dependent on the caloric value of sucrose.