Dynamic causal modeling reveals increased cerebellar- periaqueductal gray communication during fear extinction

Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience

Neuroscience

Rosalyn J. Moran¹  Bridget M. Lumb²  Richard Apps²  Elena Paci²  Charlotte L. Lawrenson² 

[1] Department of Neuroimaging, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom;School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom;

关键词: cerebellum;    periaqueductal gray;    fear;    dynamic causal modeling (DCM);    ERPs;    extinction;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnsys.2023.1148604

 received in 2023-01-20, accepted in 2023-04-12,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

IntroductionThe extinction of fear memories is an important component in regulating defensive behaviors, contributing toward adaptive processes essential for survival. The cerebellar medial nucleus (MCN) has bidirectional connections with the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG) and is implicated in the regulation of multiple aspects of fear, such as conditioned fear learning and the expression of defensive motor outputs. However, it is unclear how communication between the MCN and vlPAG changes during conditioned fear extinction.MethodsWe use dynamic causal models (DCMs) to infer effective connectivity between the MCN and vlPAG during auditory cue-conditioned fear retrieval and extinction in the rat. DCMs determine causal relationships between neuronal sources by using neurobiologically motivated models to reproduce the dynamics of post-synaptic potentials generated by synaptic connections within and between brain regions. Auditory event related potentials (ERPs) during the conditioned tone offset were recorded simultaneously from MCN and vlPAG and then modeled to identify changes in the strength of the synaptic inputs between these brain areas and the relationship to freezing behavior across extinction trials. The DCMs were structured to model evoked responses to best represent conditioned tone offset ERPs and were adapted to represent PAG and cerebellar circuitry.ResultsWith the use of Parametric Empirical Bayesian (PEB) analysis we found that the strength of the information flow, mediated through enhanced synaptic efficacy from MCN to vlPAG was inversely related to freezing during extinction, i.e., communication from MCN to vlPAG increased with extinction.DiscussionThe results are consistent with the cerebellum contributing to predictive processes that underpin fear extinction.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Paci, Lumb, Apps, Lawrenson and Moran.