RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Prefrontal cortical control of a brainstem social behavior circuit
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 073734
DO 10.1101/073734
A1 Tamara B. Franklin
A1 Bianca A. Silva
A1 Zina Perova
A1 Livia Marrone
A1 Maria E. Masferrer
A1 Yang Zhan
A1 Angie Kaplan
A1 Louise Greetham
A1 Violaine Verrechia
A1 Andreas Halman
A1 Sara Pagella
A1 Alexei L. Vyssotski
A1 Anna Illarionova
A1 Valery Grinevich
A1 Tiago Branco
A1 Cornelius T. Gross
YR 2016
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/09/09/073734.abstract
AB The prefrontal cortex plays a critical role in adjusting an organism’s behavior to its environment. In particular, numerous studies have implicated the prefrontal cortex in the control of social behavior, but the neural circuits that mediate these effects remain unknown. Here we investigated behavioral adaptation to social defeat in mice and uncovered a critical contribution of neural projections from the medial prefrontal cortex to the dorsal periaqueductal grey, a brainstem area vital for defensive responses. Social defeat caused a weakening of functional connectivity between these two areas and selective inhibition of these projections mimicked the behavioral effects of social defeat. These findings define a specific neural projection by which the prefrontal cortex can control and adapt social behavior.