Topic: social buffering

Social buffering, the phenomenon by which the presence of others can reduce the consequences of stressful experiences, has been observed in both humans and rodents, yet the precise mechanism by which social interactions can offset the negative impact of stress remains unknown. Here, utilizing a new behavioral paradigm, we demonstrate that brief social interaction with a familiar, unstressed individual after acute restraint, is sufficient to ameliorate the stress-induced deficits in reward seeking in both male and female mice. Previous studies indicate that within the ventral tegmental area (VT

Stress is an adaptive mechanism that enables an optimal response to danger. However, chronic stress disrupts normal bodily functions and can lead to various disorders. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in the regulation of stress responses. One of the output targets of the mPFC is the lateral hypothalamus (LH), a brain region that regulates innate behaviours known to be affected by stress. In this work, we analysed effects of optogenetic stimulation of mPFC inputs to LH on innate behaviours in freely behaving mice exposed to different stressors.Optogenetic stimulation of mPFC pro