The social conflict behaviors are defined by the activity of the ventral medial habenula - interpeduncular nucleus - median raphe pathway

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K01846
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Basic / Social brain science
• Research Institution: Institute of Physical and Chemical Research
• Principal Investigator: Matsumata Miho 国立研究開発法人理化学研究所, 脳科学総合研究センター, 研究員 (50595460)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 社会的闘争 / 手綱核 / 脚間核 / 中央縫線核

Outline of Final Research Achievements

It was reported that the ventral part of medial habenula (vMHb) projects to the interpeduncular nucleus (IPN) and that the neurons in the vMHb release both glutamate and acetylcholine (ACh). We examined the effects of inhibition or activation on the vMHb-IPN pathway in social conflicts. The mice with selective impairment in ACh synthesis (cCKO mice) in the vMHb-IPN pathway showed tendency to win in the tube test, a standard assay of a dominant-subuordinate relationship. In contrast, when channel-rhodopsin 2 was selectively photo-activated in that pathway by micro-LED, the mice behaved submissively. Next, we examined the involvement of the median raphe (MnR), which was projected from the IPN. When the 5HT neurons in the MnR were inhibited selectively by specific expression of chemogenetic receptor and its ligand, those mice behaved timidly. Taken together, the activity of the vMHb-IPN-MnR pathway plays the major role for inducing the submissive behaviors.

Free Research Field

神経科学