Topic: posttraumatic stress disorder

Maladaptive negative memories underlie conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This inspired research geared towards memory modulation by direct targeting of the negative memory. However, direct modulation of emotional memories can cause substantial distress and is often ineffective. Given these challenges we aimed to modulate negative memories indirectly. We previously demonstrated indirect modulation of neutral visual memory by utilizing behavioral instructions to intentionally remember or forget verbal content in order to indirectly target an embedded neutral visual memory.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychopathological condition triggered by traumatic events, affects the brain's energy demand. The median prefrontal cortex (m-PFC) plays a crucial role in regulating the fear response. Moreover, it contains glucose-sensing glucose transporter 2 (GLUT2)-containing neurons. Therefore, we hypothesized that manipulation of these mPFC-GLUT2 cells could impact the behavioral outcome.An adeno-associated viral vector was used to deliver a stimulatory DREADD sequence into the mPFC of mice from both sexes. The infected cells were stimulated by clozapine-N-oxide r

Pattern separation and pattern completion are important functions of the hippocampal formation involving particularly the dentate gyrus (DG)-CA3 mossy fiber system. These functions allow for the differentiation of similar memories as well as a generalization of a memory trace in response to incomplete sensory inputs. The salience of hippocampus-dependent contextual fear memories is controlled by local somatostatin (SST)-positive interneurons that regulate the excitability of DG granule cells. In the current study we investigate if SST-positive interneurons contribute to fear memory specificity