A stress-activated neuronal ensemble in the supramammillary nucleus produces anxiety-like behavior in male mice.

Abstract

Anxiety is a prevalent negative emotional state induced by stress; however, the neural mechanism underlying anxiety is still largely unknown. We used acute and chronic stress to induce anxiety and test anxiety-like behavior; immunostaining, multichannel extracellular electrophysiological recording, and Ca²⁺ imaging to evaluate neuronal activity; and virus-based neuronal tracing to label circuits and manipulate circuitry activity. Here, we identified a hypothalamic region, the supramammillary nucleus (SuM), that plays an important role in anxiety-like behavior. We then characterized a small ensemble of stress-activated neurons (SANs) that are recruited by stress. These SANs respond specifically to stress, and their activation robustly increases anxiety-like behavior in male mice. We also found that ventral subiculum (vSub)-SuM projections, but not dorsal subiculum (dSub)-SuM projections, encode anxiety-like behavior and that inhibition of these vSub-SuM projections has an antianxiety effect. These results indicate that the reactivation of stress-activated supramammillary cells and relevant neural circuits is an important neural process underlying anxiety-like behavior.