Topic: bed nucleus of stria terminalis

Tourette’s syndrome (TS) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are neurodevelopmental disorders affecting ~0.6% of the total population. Although the full etiology of these disorders remains largely unknown, there are severe cases of TS and OCD known to be caused by a nonsense mutation in the Hdc gene coding for the enzyme responsible for histamine production with patients exhibiting lowered histamine levels. Both TS and OCD show strong social components where both stress and anxiety can facilitate as well as exacerbate symptoms, with an underlying cause remaining largely unknown. Therefore,

Neuronal circuits located in the midbrain play a critical role in controlling defensive behavior. However, it is still elusive how different neuron types contribute to distinct behavioral outcomes during the presence of threat. In this study, we investigated neurons expressing vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) in the ventral periaqueductal gray (PAG) and dorsal raphe nucleus in mice. These VIP-expressing neurons also expressed tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), a marker for dopaminergic cells. Using viral tracing conducted in Vip-Cre mice, we observed that these VIP-expressing neurons innervated