summary: Adolescent stress alters brain function and affects postnatal social behavior in mammals.
This study utilizes optogenetics and calcium imaging techniques to understand neurotransmission in mice undergoing psychosocial stress during adolescence. We found that when this stress is combined with pregnancy and childbirth, it affects the functioning of glutamatergic pathways, leading to changes in social behavior.
This finding suggests that stress hormone receptors (glucocorticoid receptors) within this pathway play an important role in these changes.
Important facts:
- Adolescent psychosocial stress can alter neuronal function in the brain, leading to changes in postnatal social behavior in mammals.
- This study pinpoints that adolescent stress and subsequent pregnancy result in decreased function of the cortico-cortical pathway (preinsula-prelimbic cortical pathway), leading to aberrant social behavior.
- The involvement of stress hormone receptors, known as glucocorticoid receptors, in this pathway suggests an important role for stress hormones in postnatal behavioral changes.
sauce: University of Alabama at Birmingham
Pubertal stress can induce postnatal behavioral changes in females and other mammals, including depression and changes in social behavior after the birth of a child.
However, the neural circuit mechanisms by which adolescent stress leads to subsequent changes in postnatal social behavior are unknown.
and Nature Communications Dr. Minae Niwa, a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, uses mouse models and cutting-edge neurobiological techniques to show how psychological stress during adolescence alters neuronal function in the brain and, as a result, postpartum. It shows how it brings about changes in social behavior.
This study builds on her recent findings that mice exposed to social isolation in late adolescence do not, by themselves, induce endocrine or behavioral changes, exhibiting long-lasting behavioral changes only with pregnancy and childbirth. is based on
Using this behavioral model, Niwa et al. show that post-pubertal stressed mother mice and non-stressed control mice during puberty are attributed to normal social interactions with other mice. We were able to investigate the differences in postnatal neural circuits between mother and mother mice.
Niwa focused on the prelimbic cortex, a central region of the brain that plays a key role in regulating social behavior and stress responses. UAB researchers use optogenetics (light signals can selectively activate or suppress brain circuits), in vivo Calcium imaging allows researchers to examine neuronal activity in specific neurons in brain regions.
These approaches allow researchers to understand how neurons communicate in freely behaving animals.
Researchers from the UAB Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology combined adolescent psychosocial stress with pregnancy and childbirth to demonstrate the function of glutamatergic pathways mapped from the anterior insula region of the cerebral cortex to the prelimbic cortex. found to cause a decline. Glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system.
This hypofunction of the cortico-cortical pathway altered neuronal activity in the prelimbic cortex, resulting in aberrant social behavior. New mice confined in different corners versus cages, as seen in the time spent test.
In this social novelty test, unstressed maternal animals had more interaction time per visit and total interaction time with novel mice in contrast to stressed maternal animals.
Specifically, Niwa et al. show that the anterior insula-prelimbic cortex pathway modulates what are termed ‘stable neurons’ in the prelimbic cortex that are constantly activated or repressed by the novel mouse, thereby allowing other mice to found that it played an important role in recognizing the novelty of
A cortico-cortical pathway means that action potentials from neurons in one area of the cerebral cortex travel to target neurons in another cortical area.
In an initial experiment, UAB researchers found that decreased activity of the preinsula-prelimbic cortex pathway in stressed maternal animals correlated with decreased social novelty preference. . They then used optogenetics to confirm the functional relevance of this pathway.
Remarkably, in the social novelty test, optogenetic inhibition of the prelimbic prelimbic pathway in unstressed maternal animals reduced social interactions with novel mice and improved the social novelty of mice. Behavior became similar to that of the stressed maternal animal.
In contrast, optogenetic activation of the prelimbic prelimbic pathway in stressed maternal animals ameliorated the behavioral changes seen in the social novelty test, making them mimic the behavioral changes seen in unstressed maternal animals. began to act.
Additionally, the UAB team was able to constrain the timing of optogenetic regulation in the social novelty test, so that the mice were either exploring the cage or restrained in the two corners of the cage for novel or Optogenetic regulation occurred only during interactions with familiar mice.
As a result, the anterior insula-prelimbic cortex pathway, which regulates stable neurons in the prelimbic cortex, may play an important role only during social novelty interactions with other mice, not during exploration. shown.
Furthermore, we revealed that a stress hormone receptor called the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is involved in the preinsula leading edge pathway. We observed that selective ablation of the GR in this pathway restored altered neuronal activity in the prelimbic cortex of stressed maternal animals.
“These findings suggest that the long-lasting rise in postpartum stress hormones plays an important role in the observed changes in neural pathways and social behavior,” said Niwa.
“Our study provides important findings implicating the anterior insula pathway in stress-induced postnatal changes in puberty that are relevant to perception of novelty in other mice, an important aspect of social behavior.” I made it clear,” she said.
“Investigating the upstream and downstream contributions of the prelimbic anterior insula pathway will not only advance our understanding of the nature of social behavior, but also the changes in postnatal social behavior induced by post-adolescent social isolation. will.”
Kyohei Kim, José Francis Oliveira, and Shinichi Kano co-authored a study titled “Adolescent stress impairs postnatal social behavior in mice via the anterior insula pathway.” is. All belong to the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology at UAB, where Niwa is an associate professor. Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology are departments of the Marnix E. Hersink College of Medicine.
Funding: Support was provided by National Institutes of Health grants MH116869 and MH128708. UAB Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology start-up funding. and the Takeda Science Foundation’s Young Japanese Physicians and PhD Fellowship Program to Study Abroad.
About this stress and social neuroscience research news
author: Jeffrey Hansen
sauce: University of Alabama at Birmingham
contact: Jeffrey Hansen – University of Alabama at Birmingham
image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: open access.
“Adolescent stress impairs postnatal social behavior via the preinsular pathway in mice” by Minae Niwa and others. Nature Communications
overview
Adolescent stress impairs postnatal social behavior via the preinsular pathway in mice
Adolescent stress can be a risk factor for abnormal postnatal social behavior and has a significant impact on an individual’s social functioning. Nevertheless, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.
Using a mouse model equipped with optogenetics and in vivo calcium imaging, we found that adolescent psychosocial stresses associated with pregnancy and childbirth are linked to the glutamatergic pathway (AI-PrL pathway) from the anterior insula to the prelimbic cortex. We found that it induces hypofunction, which alters the activity of PrL neurons. , and, as a result, led to aberrant social behavior.
Specifically, the AI-PrL pathway played an important role in recognizing novelty in other mice by regulating PrL ‘stable neurons’ that were constantly activated or repressed by novel mice. . We also observed that glucocorticoid receptor signaling in the AI-PrL pathway is responsible for stress-induced postnatal changes.
Our findings provide functional insight into the cortico-cortical pathways underlying stress-induced postnatal social behavioral disorders in adolescents.
