Interactions among the medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and midline thalamus in emotional and cognitive processing in the rat

Vertes, Robert P.

doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2006.06.027

Cited by 698 publications

(584 citation statements)

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“…Inactivation of the mPFC during ES completely blocked the effects of ES on later fear conditioning, so that neither fear to the tone or to the context was reduced by ES. These data are consistent with those reported by Amat et al (2005;2006) and suggest that control over a stressor is protective because it engages the mPFC. The argument here would be that experiencing control during ES activates the mPFC and alters it in such a way that the occurrence of fear later now activates mPFC output to the amygdala to a greater extent than it otherwise would, thereby inhibiting fear responses controlled by the amygdala.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Both infralimbic (IL) and prelimbic (PL) regions of the mPFC project to the amygdala (Vertes, 2006). Although the literature regarding mPFC regulation of the amygdala and fear is seemingly inconsistent (see Discussion), stimulation within the mPFC has been reported to inhibit CeA function (Berretta et al, 2005) and to both interfere with the acquisition (Rosenkranz et al, 2003) and expression of conditioned fear responses (Milad et al, 2004).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Controllable versus uncontrollable stressors bi-directionally modulate conditioned but not innate fear

et al. 2007

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Fear conditioning and fear extinction play key roles in the development and treatment of anxietyrelated disorders, yet there is little information concerning experiential variables that modulate these processes. Here we examined the impact of exposure to a stressor in a different environment on subsequent fear conditioning and extinction, and whether the degree of behavioral control that the subject has over the stressor is of importance. Rats received a session of either escapable (controllable) tailshock (ES), yoked inescapable (uncontrollable) tailshock (IS), or control treatment (HC) 7 days before fear conditioning in which a tone and footshock were paired. Conditioning was measured 24 h later. In a second experiment rats received ES, IS or HC 24 h after contextual fear conditioning. Extinction then occurred every day beginning 7 days later until a criterion was reached. Spontaneous recovery of fear was assessed 14 days after extinction. IS potentiated fear conditioning when given before fear conditioning, and potentiated fear responding during extinction when given after conditioning. Importantly, ES potently interfered with later fear conditioning, decreased fear responding during fear extinction, and prevented spontaneous recovery of fear. Additionally, we examined if the activation of the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFCv) by ES is critical for the protective effects of ES on later fear conditioning. Inactivation of the mPFCv with muscimol at the time of the initial experience with control prevented ES-induced reductions in later contextual and auditory fear conditioning.Finally, we explored if the protective effects of ES extended to an unconditioned fear stimulus, ferret odor. Unlike conditioned fear, prior ES increased the fear response to ferret odor to the same degree as did IS.Keywords stressor controllability; medial prefrontal cortex; fear conditioning; fear extinction; spontaneous recovery; PTSD The phenomena of Pavlovian fear conditioning and fear extinction have come to be viewed as key processes involved in the development (Mineka and Zinbarg, 2006) and treatment (Rothbaum and Davis, 2003) of anxiety disorders, respectively. In addition to the obvious procedural similarity between fear conditioning/extinction and the conditions that foster Address correspondence to Michael V. Baratta,

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

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confidence: 99%

Controllable versus uncontrollable stressors bi-directionally modulate conditioned but not innate fear

et al. 2007

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“…Although the present work found a role for BLA projections to the VH only in footshock learning, as Malin and McGaugh observed for the anterior cingulate, there is no direct projection from the VH to the anterior cingulate or vice versa. Of note, however, is the consistent co-activation of the anterior cingulate and VH in fear memories including expression/retrieval (Cullen et al 2015), a relationship likely mediated through the nucleus reuniens of thalamus (Vertes 2006;Nieuwenhuis and Takashima 2011). Nonetheless, a wealth of findings provide evidence supporting a promiscuous influence for the BLA on memory consolidation and more discrete roles for other brain regions depending on the component or type of learning involved.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Basolateral amygdala projections to ventral hippocampus modulate the consolidation of footshock, but not contextual, learning in rats

et al. 2016

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The basolateral amygdala (BLA) modulates memory consolidation for a variety of types of learning, whereas other brain regions play more selective roles in specific kinds of learning suggesting a role for differential consolidation via distinct BLA pathways. The ventral hippocampus (VH), an efferent target of the BLA, has been suggested to selectively process emotionrelated learning, yet whether the BLA VH pathway modulates memory consolidation, and does so in a learning-specific manner, is unknown. To address this issue, the BLA of male Sprague-Dawley rats was bilaterally transduced to express either ChR2(E123A) or eArchT3.0. Fiber optic probes were implanted in the VH to provide illumination of BLA axons. Rats then underwent a modified contextual fear conditioning task permitting separation of context and footshock learning. On day 1, rats received 3 min of pre-exposure to the apparatus. On day 2, rats were placed into the apparatus, received an immediate footshock, and quickly removed. Retention was tested on day 4. Optical stimulation of the BLA VH pathway following footshock, but not context, training using trains of 40-Hz light pulses enhanced retention. Continuous optical inhibition of this pathway for 15 min starting 25 min after footshock training impaired retention. These findings indicate that BLA VH projections influence the consolidation for footshock, but not context, learning of a modified CFC task and provide direct evidence that BLA projections to other brain regions modulate memory consolidation selectively depending on the kind of learning involved.Learning and memory involves complex interactions among multiple brain regions that play discrete roles in the consolidation of specific kinds of memories. However, work strongly indicates that the basolateral amygdala (BLA) modulates the consolidation of a wide array of memories. It has been hypothesized that the BLA plays this more general role, at least in part, through interactions with distinct regions (McGaugh 2002(McGaugh , 2004McIntyre et al. 2012). BLA connections with forebrain regions such as the hippocampus and striatum that are selectively involved in the consolidation of certain kinds of memories (McDonald 1991;Pitkänen et al. 2000;McGaugh 2002;Malin and McGaugh 2006;Paz et al. 2006;Chavez et al. 2013) suggest that efferent pathways from the BLA may be selectively involved in modulating consolidation for specific kinds of information.Indeed, much evidence suggests that the BLA interacts with the hippocampus during memory consolidation (Packard et al. 1994;Roozendaal et al. 1999;Malin and McGaugh 2006) and that the BLA directly or indirectly influences activity and plasticity in different parts of the hippocampal formation (Ikegaya et al. 1995;Frey et al. 2001;McIntyre et al. 2005;McReynolds et al. 2014;Lovitz and Thompson 2015). These findings suggest pathway mechanisms by which the BLA influences the consolidation of memories regulated by the hippocampal formation. However, the hippocampus comprises different subregions, including dors...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several reports have also suggested its crucial role in working memory [9,10] . The mPFC in rat consists of four main subdivisions, the medial agranular, anterior cingulate (AC), prelimbic (PL) and infralimbic cortices [10][11][12] . inactivation of the ventral mPFC (PL and AC cortices), produces marked deficits in delayedresponse tasks involving short or long delays [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anticipatory activity in rat medial prefrontal cortex during a working memory task

Bai

Liu

et al. 2012

Neurosci. Bull.

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Objective Working memory is a key cognitive function in which the prefrontal cortex plays a crucial role.This study aimed to show the firing patterns of a neuronal population in the prefrontal cortex of the rat in a working memory task and to explore how a neuronal ensemble encodes a working memory event. Methods Sprague-Dawley rats were trained in a Y-maze until they reached an 80% correct rate in a working memory task. Then a 16-channel microelectrode array was implanted in the prefrontal cortex. After recovery, neuronal population activity was recorded during the task, using the Cerebus data-acquisition system. Spatio-temporal trains of action potentials were obtained from the original neuronal population signals. Results During the Y-maze working memory task, some neurons showed significantly increased firing rates and evident neuronal ensemble activity. Moreover, the anticipatory activity was associated with the delayed alternate choice of the upcoming movement. In correct trials, the averaged pre-event firing rate (10.86 ± 1.82 spikes/ bin) was higher than the post-event rate (8.17 ± 1.15 spikes/bin) (P <0.05). However, in incorrect trials, the rates did not differ. Conclusion The results indicate that the anticipatory activity of a neuronal ensemble in the prefrontal cortex may play a role in encoding working memory events.

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Interactions among the medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and midline thalamus in emotional and cognitive processing in the rat

Cited by 698 publications

References 287 publications

Controllable versus uncontrollable stressors bi-directionally modulate conditioned but not innate fear

Controllable versus uncontrollable stressors bi-directionally modulate conditioned but not innate fear

Basolateral amygdala projections to ventral hippocampus modulate the consolidation of footshock, but not contextual, learning in rats

Anticipatory activity in rat medial prefrontal cortex during a working memory task

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