Topic: serotonergic neurons

Cadherin-13 (CDH13) is a member of the cadherin superfamily, which consists of cell-adhesion molecules. CDH13 is involved in the regulation of synapse formation and maintenance, as well as serotonergic neuron development. Serotonergic neurons mainly originate from the raphe nuclei in the hindbrain. In mice, CDH13 is first detected roughly halfway through the embryonic development in the hindbrain. Studies suggest a role of CDH13 in the pathophysiology of neurodevelopmental disorders. After previously investigating the role of CDH13 during embryonic development, we now aimed for the analysis of

Primary mitochondrial diseases are caused by mutations in genes required for mitochondrial function. The primary mitochondrial disease complex I deficiency results from loss-of-function mutations in subunits of mitochondrial respiratory complex 1 and is the most common cause of childhood mitochondrial disease. Complex I deficiency causes severe neurological deficits in patients, but we have little understanding of how individual subtypes of neurons are affected and the underlying mechanisms.We used knockdown of the complex I subunit ND-75 in Drosophila (the homolog of NDUFS1) to investigate th

While the interconnection of monoaminergic nuclei, namely the Raphe nucleus, Locus coeruleus (LC) and Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) is widely acknowledged for its pivotal role in mediating diverse cerebral functions, the true complexity lies in the nuanced neuroanatomical and neurochemical diversity within each system. Recent discoveries have brought to light distinctive neuronal populations within the raphe nucleus or the LC, both projecting specifically to the VTA, main nucleus for dopamine secretion. The raphe nucleus is a neurochemically diverse hub, hosting not only serotonergic neurons bu

The dorsal tegmentum including the ventrolateral PAG (vlPAG) and dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) plays a critical role in controlling anxiety, fear memory formation, autonomic processes and most particularly, it is involved in descending modulation of pain processing. It has been shown that different neuron types, such as dopaminergic and serotonergic cells are part of this circuitry – besides the glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons – however their functions remained unclear. Here, we explored the neuronal activity in the vlPAG and DRN in urethane-anesthetized mice in response to different types of

Despite the well-demonstrated modulatory effect of serotonin on spinal motor circuits, the specific roles and identity of the involved serotonergic neurons remain unclear. This ambiguity owes to the anatomical and neurochemical heterogeneity of the medullary brainstem regions housing the spinally-projecting serotonergic neurons, and to the limited number of studies investigating their connectivity and function cell-specifically.Here, we selectively target the midline serotonergic neurons of the caudal medulla (mCM-5HT) in the mouse to explore their output connectivity in the spinal cord and th

We have revealed that there is a causal relationship between activation of dorsal raphe (DR) serotonergic neurons and patience when waiting for future rewards. To explain these behavioral data, we proposed a Bayesian decision model of waiting in which serotonin signals the prior probability of reward delivery. However, there is no direct evidence serotonin neural activity is modulated by reward probability. Five male serotonin neuron-specific GCaMP6-expressing mice were trained to perform a sequential tone-food waiting task that required them to wait for a delayed tone (tone delay: 0.3 s, tone