Biology subjects

Mohapatra, A. N.

Publications and source records attributed to Mohapatra, A. N..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Distinct prelimbic cortex neuronal responses to emotional states of others drive emotion recognition in adult male mice

The ability to perceive the emotional states of others, termed emotion recognition, allows individuals to adapt their conduct to the social environment. The brain mechanisms underlying this capacity, known to be impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), remain, however, elusive. Using the emotional state preference paradigm, we show that adult mice can discern emotional states of conspecifics in a sex-specific manner, behavior impaired in an ASD mouse model. Fiber photometry revealed inhibition of pyramidal neurons in the prelimbic medial prefrontal cortex (PrL) during investigation of aroused individuals, as opposed to transient excitation towards non-aroused conspecifics. Augmenting this differential neuronal response enhanced emotion recognition, while abolishing this response eliminated such behavior, as demonstrated via optogenetic stimulation. Chronic electrophysiological recordings at the single-cell level indicated social stimulus-specific responses in PrL neurons at the onset and conclusion of social investigation bouts, potentially regulating the initiation and termination of social interactions. The dysregulated activity of these neurons may thus contribute to deficits in social behavior observed in ASD.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Impaired emotion recognition in Cntnap2-deficient mice is associated with hyper-synchronous prefrontal cortex neuronal activity

Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show difficulty in recognizing emotions in others, a process termed emotion recognition. While human fMRI studies linked multiple brain areas to emotion recognition, the specific mechanisms underlying impaired emotion recognition in ASD are not clear, partially due to the lack of appropriate tests in animal models. Here, we employed an emotional state preference (ESP) task to show that Cntnap2-knockout (KO) mice, an established ASD model, do not distinguish between conspecifics according to their emotional state. We assessed brain-wide local-field potential (LFP) signals during various social behavior tasks and found that Cntnap2-KO mice exhibited higher LFP theta and gamma rhythmicity than did C57BL/6J mice, even at rest. Specifically, Cntnap2-KO mice showed increased theta coherence, especially between the prelimbic cortex (PrL) and the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus, during social behavior. Moreover, we observed significantly increased Granger causality of theta rhythmicity between these two brain areas, across all types of social behavior. Finally, optogenetic stimulation of PrL pyramidal neurons in C57BL/6J mice impaired their social discrimination abilities, including ESP behavior. Together, these results suggest that increased activity of PrL pyramidal neurons and their augmented synchronization with specific brain regions are involved in the impaired emotion recognition exhibited by Cntnap2-KO mice.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Ventral dentate gyrus-dominated LFP rhythmicity in the social brain reflects the context of social encounters

Mammalian social behavior is highly context-sensitive. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms that modulate social behavior according to its context. Recent studies have revealed a network of mostly limbic brain regions, here termed the "social brain", which regulates social behavior. We hypothesized that coherent theta and gamma rhythms reflect the organization of the social brain regions into functional networks in a context-dependent manner. To test this concept, we simultaneously recorded extracellular activity from multiple social brain regions in mice performing three social discrimination tasks. Local field potential (LFP) rhythmicity across all tasks was dominated by a general internal state. However, during stimulus investigation LFP rhythmicity was sensitive to stimulus characteristics. Specifically, the pattern of LFP coherence between the various regions reflected mainly the social context. Moreover, we found the ventral dentate gyrus to play a pivotal role in coordinating the context-specific rhythmic activity in the network.

neuroscience↗