Mood disorders

…nervous system is associated with mood disorders. To unravel systemic effects of psychosocial stress we aimed to investigate AOE activity in peripheral organs and erythrocytes of peripubertal rats due to social isolation during peripuberty. Social play with peers during this period is highly rewarding activity abundant in the young of most mammalian species. Absence of peer social support is associated with depression. Male peripubertal Wistar Han rats were either group-housed (3/cage) or single-housed (1/cage) du

Altered functional connectivity in human brain networks has been reported in mood disorders. A moderating hub between resting state networks (RSNs) and the medial temporal lobe (MTL) is the parahippocampal cortex (PHC), where abnormal activity has been reported in depressed patients and suicide attempters. Alterations in neuronal mitochondrial function may contribute to depression and suicidal behavior, however, little is known about the underlying molecular level changes in relevant structures. Specifically, expressional changes related to suicide have not been reported in the PHC. Here, we c

…provides mechanisms for change in mood states. Mood disorders associate with change in plasticity; specifically, perineuronal nets (PNNs) associate with synaptic plasticity. PNNs mostly surround Parvalbumin neurons (PV) thereby altering inhibitory signalling.The aim of this study was to induce a positive or negative affective state in rats through housing conditions, validate this with behav

Nicotine use during adolescence (ADO) constitutes a risk factor to later develop mood disorders. Yet, the mechanisms underlying the enduring effects of adolescent nicotine exposure remain poorly elucidated. During ADO, the cognitive and goal-directed behaviors are refined in parallel to the development of dopamine (DA) circuitry, and both are uniquely sensitive to disruption by environmental influence during this time. Prolonged nicotine exposure in adult mice favors the appearance of depressive-like symptoms by altering the activity of ventral tegmental area (VTA) DA neurons and nicotinic pat

Mental disorders are the leading causes of disability worldwide. They comprise a broad range of conditions, including mood disorders, which are in general marked by a significant distress, emotional disturbances, social withdrawal and a loss of interest in normally rewarding activities. Stress is a key environmental factor that predisposes to many mood disorders, such as depression and hinders remission. The behavioral sequelae of stress partly result from enduring changes in striatal dopamine and glutamate transmission. Current therapies primarily target symptoms rather than their causes due

Mood disorders such as depression or anxiety disorders are the most prevalent psychiatric diseases and represent the highest level of avoidable health-care cost in first world countries. Nonetheless, the biological foundation of these diseases is only poorly understood despite decades of research. Most clinically used antidepressants target the monoamine system and aim at either raising the levels of monoamines (serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine) in the synaptic cleft through inhibition of reuptake or act on monoaminergic receptors. However, it takes several weeks until an antidepressant eff

…of preventable risk factors including mood disorders in the promotion of resilience against neurodegenerative disorder. In his presentation Dr. Pasinetti will discuss novel concepts about the gut-brain axis in mechanisms associated to peripheral adaptive immunity as therapeutic targets to mitigate the onset and the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and other form of dementia.

Mood disorders are characterized by behavioral changes arising from network-level alterations, with the amygdala (AMY)-ventral hippocampus (vHPC) pathway being a central component. Anhedonia, the reduced ability to feel pleasure, is a core feature of mood disorders. However, how stress-induced changes in motivation to seek and consume rewards are represented in the activity patterns in the AMY and vHPC remains unclear. Furthermore, how these activity patterns can inform pathway-specific manipulations to rescue anhedonic behavior remains to be explored. Here, we used Neuropixels probes to recor

…sleep and circadian rhythms and mood disorders; (3) describe potential of cross species studies of motor activity and related systems to inform human chronobiology research

A key insight from the foraging literature is the importance of assessing the overall environmental quality — via global reward rate or similar measures, which capture the opportunity cost of time and can guide behavioral allocation toward relatively richer options. Meanwhile, the majority of research in decision neuroscience and computational psychiatry has focused instead on how choices are guided by much more local, event-locked evaluations: of individual situations, actions, or outcomes. I review a combination of research and theoretical speculation from my lab and others that emphasizes t

…and developing treatments for human mood disorders, and they are necessary for ensuring good animal welfare. We have developed a novel measure of emotion in animals that is grounded in theory and psychological research – decision-making under ambiguity. Specifically, we consider that more ‘optimistic’ decisions about ambiguous stimuli reflect more positive emotional states, while the opposite is true for more ‘pessimistic’ decisions. In this talk, we will outline the background b