Prefrontal cortical control of a brainstem social behavior circuit

• DOI: 10.1038/nn.4470
• Publication Date: 2017-01-09T16:20:33Z
• Authors: Tamara B Franklin; Bianca A Silva; Zinaida Perova; Livia Marrone; Maria E Masferrer; Yang Zhan; Angie Kaplan; Louise Greetham; Violaine Verrechia; Andreas Halman; Sara Pagella; Alexei L Vyssotski; Anna Illarionova; Valery Grinevich; Tiago Branco; Cornelius T Gross
• Keywords: Periaqueductal gray; Social defeat; Biological neural network

SummaryThe prefrontal cortex plays a critical role in adjusting an organism’s behavior to its environment. In particular, numerous studies have implicated the prefrontal cortex in the control of social behavior, but the neural circuits that mediate these effects remain unknown. Here we investigated behavioral adaptation to social defeat in mice and uncovered a critical contribution of neural projections from the medial prefrontal cortex to the dorsal periaqueductal grey, a brainstem area vital for defensive responses. Social defeat caused a weakening of functional connectivity between these two areas and selective inhibition of these projections mimicked the behavioral effects of social defeat. These findings define a specific neural projection by which the prefrontal cortex can control and adapt social behavior.