Projections from Infralimbic Cortex to Paraventricular Thalamus Mediate Fear Extinction Retrieval  

作　　者：Yan Tao Cheng-Yun Cai Jia-Yun Xian Xiao-Lin Kou Yu-Hui Lin Cheng Qin Hai-Yin Wu Lei Chang Chun-Xia Luo Dong-Ya Zhu 

机构地区：[1]Department of Pharmacology,School of Pharmacy,Nanjing Medical University,Nanjing 211166,China [2]Institution of Stem Cells and Neuroregeneration,Nanjing Medical University,Nanjing 211166,China [3]Guangdong-Hong Kong,Greater Bay Area Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence-Macao,Guangzhou 510000,China

出　　处：《Neuroscience Bulletin》2021年第2期229-241,共13页神经科学通报（英文版）

基　　金：This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31530091 and 81870912);the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2016YFC1306703);the Science and Technology Program of Guangdong Province,China(2018B030334001);the Collaborative Innovation Center for Cardiovascular Disease Translational Medicine,China.

摘　　要：The paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus(PVT),which serves as a hub,receives dense projections from the medial prefrontal cortex(mPFC)and projects to the lateral division of central amygdala(CeL).The infralimbic(IL)cortex plays a crucial role in encoding and recalling fear extinction memory.Here,we found that neurons in the PVT and IL were strongly activated during fear extinction retrieval.Silencing PVT neurons inhibited extinction retrieval at recent time point(24 h after extinction),while activating them promoted extinction retrieval at remote time point(7 d after extinction),suggesting a critical role of the PVT in extinction retrieval.In the mPFC-PVT circuit,projections from IL rather than prelimbic cortex to the PVT were dominant,and disrupting the IL-PVT projection suppressed extinction retrieval.Moreover,the axons of PVT neurons preferentially projected to the CeL.Silencing the PVT-CeL circuit also suppressed extinction retrieval.Together,our findings reveal a new neural circuit for fear extinction retrieval outside the classical IL-amygdala circuit.

关 键 词：Paraventricular thalamus Infralimbic cortex Medial prefrontal cortex AMYGDALA Fear extinction retrieval Neural circuit Post-traumatic stress disorder 

分 类 号：R749.5[医药卫生—神经病学与精神病学]