Sex-Dependent Modulation of Emotional and Cognitive Processes by Prefrontal CB1 Receptors

Abstract

The medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC) participates in emotional regulation, decision-making and behavioural flexibility. Cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) is widely expressed in the mPFC, particularly in GABAergic neurons, where it modulates synaptic transmission, contributing to the mPFC excitation-inhibition balance. Alteration of GABAergic activity and CB1 levels is indeed part of the pathophysiology of many psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia. Interestingly, both CB1 and mood disorders display important sex differences. In this work, we study the role of CB1 receptors in prefrontal GABAergic interneurons in emotional and cognitive processes in a sex-dependent manner. To achieve this objective, we deleted CB1 from all mPFC neurons and the GABAergic population in adult CB1-flox male and female mice, and GABAergic neuronal activity was assessed via calcium imaging with fiber photometry. Global CB1 deletion in mPFC neurons, specifically in GABAergic cells, altered emotional but not cognitive processes, with opposite patterns. This impairment was sex- and task-dependent. While pan-neuronal CB1 deletion had an anxiolytic effect on females, GABAergic CB1 deletion had the same effect on male mice, linked to increased GABAergic neuronal activity. By contrast, fear conditioning was primarily affected in males with neuronal CB1 depletion and in females with receptor deletion in inhibitory neurons. GABAergic CB1 deletion potentiates females freezing response during acquisition and recall 24 hours later, and is associated with decreased inhibitory neuronal activity during the tone-shock association. In conclusion, mPFC GABAergic CB1 deletion is associated with an anxiolytic phenotype but also heightened responses to conditioned cues in a sex-dependent manner.