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Xiao C, Wei J, Zhang GW, Tao C, Huang JJ, Shen L, Wickersham IR, Tao HW, Zhang LI. Glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons in pontine central gray mediate opposing valence-specific behaviors through a global network. Neuron 2023; 111:1486-1503.e7. [PMID: 36893756 PMCID: PMC10164086 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.02.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2022] [Revised: 01/23/2023] [Accepted: 02/07/2023] [Indexed: 03/11/2023]
Abstract
Extracting the valence of environmental cues is critical for animals' survival. How valence in sensory signals is encoded and transformed to produce distinct behavioral responses remains not well understood. Here, we report that the mouse pontine central gray (PCG) contributes to encoding both negative and positive valences. PCG glutamatergic neurons were activated selectively by aversive, but not reward, stimuli, whereas its GABAergic neurons were preferentially activated by reward signals. The optogenetic activation of these two populations resulted in avoidance and preference behavior, respectively, and was sufficient to induce conditioned place aversion/preference. Suppression of them reduced sensory-induced aversive and appetitive behaviors, respectively. These two functionally opponent populations, receiving a broad range of inputs from overlapping yet distinct sources, broadcast valence-specific information to a distributed brain network with distinguishable downstream effectors. Thus, PCG serves as a critical hub to process positive and negative valences of incoming sensory signals and drive valence-specific behaviors with distinct circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cuiyu Xiao
- Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA
| | - Jinxing Wei
- Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA
| | - Guang-Wei Zhang
- Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA
| | - Can Tao
- Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA
| | - Junxiang J Huang
- Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA; Graduate Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Li Shen
- Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA
| | - Ian R Wickersham
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Huizhong W Tao
- Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA; Center for Neural Circuits and Sensory Processing Disorders, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.
| | - Li I Zhang
- Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA; Center for Neural Circuits and Sensory Processing Disorders, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.
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Becerra L, Navratilova E, Porreca F, Borsook D. Analogous responses in the nucleus accumbens and cingulate cortex to pain onset (aversion) and offset (relief) in rats and humans. J Neurophysiol 2013; 110:1221-6. [PMID: 23785130 PMCID: PMC3763092 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00284.2013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2013] [Accepted: 06/13/2013] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
In humans, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc) appears to reflect affective and motivational aspects of pain. The responses of this reward-aversion circuit to relief of pain, however, have not been investigated in detail. Moreover, it is not clear whether brain processing of the affective qualities of pain in animals parallels the mechanisms observed in humans. In the present study, we analyzed fMRI blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) activity separately in response to an onset (aversion) and offset (reward) of a noxious heat stimulus to a dorsal part of a limb in both humans and rats. We show that pain onset results in negative activity change in the NAc and pain offset produces positive activity change in the ACC and NAc. These changes were analogous in humans and rats, suggesting that translational studies of brain circuits modulated by pain are plausible and may offer an opportunity for mechanistic investigation of pain and pain relief.
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Affiliation(s)
- L Becerra
- P.A.I.N. Group, Children's Hospital of Boston, Waltham, MA 02453, USA.
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