Thalamic nucleus reuniens coordinates prefrontal-hippocampal synchrony to suppress extinguished fear.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37848425.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-42315-1 and PMC identifier 10582091.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Traumatic events result in vivid and enduring fear memories. Suppressing the retrieval of these memories is central to behavioral therapies for pathological fear. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and hippocampus (HPC) have been implicated in retrieval suppression, but how mPFC-HPC activity is coordinated during extinction retrieval is unclear. Here we show that after extinction training, coherent theta oscillations (6-9 Hz) in the HPC and mPFC are correlated with the suppression of conditioned freezing in male and female rats. Inactivation of the nucleus reuniens (RE), a thalamic hub interconnecting the mPFC and HPC, reduces extinction-related Fos expression in both the mPFC and HPC, dampens mPFC-HPC theta coherence, and impairs extinction retrieval. Conversely, theta-paced optogenetic stimulation of RE augments fear suppression and reduces relapse of extinguished fear. Collectively, these results demonstrate a role for RE in coordinating mPFC-HPC interactions to suppress fear memories after extinction.
Medical subject headings
- Midline Thalamic Nuclei
- Fear