Topic: medial prefrontal cortex

Updating behavioral policies in novel environments or upon shifting action-outcome contingencies is essential for survival. A number of studies have identified the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) as a key player in cognitive flexibility, rule learning and uncertainty detection. Animals learning a new behavioral paradigm, or switching between rules, show abrupt changes in their performance, accompanied by sharp transitions in neuronal population dynamics. However, the precise mechanisms regulating behavioral flexibility remain unclear. Here we aim to extract the computational mechanisms behind

Whilst spatial navigation is a function ascribed to the hippocampus, flexibly adapting to a change in rule depends on the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Single-units were recorded from the hippocampus and mPFC of rats shifting between a spatially- and cue-guided rule on a plus-maze. The mPFC population coded for the relative position between start and goal arm. During awake immobility periods, the mPFC replayed organized sequences of generalized positions which positively correlated with rule-switching performance. Conversely, hippocampal replay negatively correlated with performance and occ

The hippocampus and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) participate in episodic and working memory, respectively. In trace conditioning, animals learn to associate a sensory stimulus (CS) and a reward (US) separated by a delay (trace period). Although the neural activity in both areas can be linked to memory representation formation, the neural mechanisms involved in learning the temporal association between CS and US are not known. In this work, we use auditory trace conditioning in head-fixed mice with simultaneous 128-channel silicon probe recordings from the hippocampal CA1 subfield and th

Coping with threatening situations requires both identifying stimuli predicting danger and selecting adaptive behavioral responses in order to survive. The dorso medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) is a critical structure involved in the regulation of threat-related behaviour, yet it is still largely unclear how threat-predicting stimuli and defensive behaviours are associated within prefrontal networks in order to successfully drive adaptive responses. Over the past years, we used a combination we used a combination of extracellular recordings, neuronal decoding approaches, and state of the art

Exploratory behaviors are crucial to the adaptation of organisms to uncertain environments. Human neuroscience studies have implicated the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in exploratory behaviors. However, the roles of these regions in signaling specific aspects of exploratory behaviors remain unclear. Based on earlier studies, we classified exploratory behaviors into two types driven by different motives: internal and external explorations. Internal exploration involves encountering options with uncertain outcomes and seeking in

The ability to withhold a response and appropriately time one’s actions is an essential component of goal-directed behavior. Aspects of such cognitive control in rodents are supported by the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The mPFC and its subareas are a site of distinct delay-related activity during motor preparation. However, how mPFC integrates relevant information and exercises the control over behavioral responses remains incompletely understood. Here we characterized local field potentials (LFPs) within mPFC with a focus on the detection of beta bursts – discrete oscillatory events in t

The medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC) receives and coordinates signals from many brain regions and is an executive hub for the interplay of sensory, limbic, and motor information. Layer 1 (L1) interneurons are essential for signal integration within the mPFC, and they are known to play a role in the maintenance of brain oscillations. However, little is known about the plasticity of electrical synapses (ES) in the L1 of the mPFC. By paired patch-clamp recordings on acute brain slices, we provide novel and conclusive evidence of functional ES between interneurons in L1 of the mPFC. ES in L1 of mPF

The correlation between cognitive function, mood states, and driving behavior remains unclear. Hence, we aimed to explore this relationship objectively, by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In a cross-sectional design, 28 male 20 to 30-year-old drivers were randomly included in the study. Each participant drove virtually in an fMRI-compatible driving simulator, after auditory and visual induction of positive, negative, and neutral mood; and fMRI was performed meanwhile to explore brain activity alterations. The analysis was performed using SPM software by performing seed-based conn

The inability to extinguish learned fear is a hallmark of trauma and stress-related disorders. The inhibitory learning fear extinction is an effective way to treat these disorders, however, the neurobiology of fear extinction has not been clarified. The Neuropeptide S (NPS) has been shown to promote arousal and anxiolytic-like effects and facilitate fear extinction. In rodents, NPS receptors (NPSR) are prominently expressed in brain structures involved in learning and memory. In humans, a correlation between the NPS system and female patients suffering from panic disorders has been shown. Alth