Paper We're Discussing This Week:

Kim R., Ananth M.R., Desai N.S., Role L.W., Talmage D.A. (2024) Distinct subpopulations of ventral pallidal cholinergic projection neurons encode valence of olfactory stimuli. Cell Reports 43: 114009

https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/pdf/S2211-1247(24)00337-1.pdf#page18

Previously:

Gu X., Johansen J.P. (2024) Prefrontal encoding of an internal model for emotional inference. BioRxiv: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.04.22.590529

Li HQ, Jiang W, Ling L, Pratelli M, Chen C, Gupta V, Godavarthi SK, Spitzer NC. (2024) Generalized fear after acute stress is caused by change in neuronal cotransmitter identity. Science. 383:1252-1259. doi: 10.1126/science.adj5996.

Zhang X, Liu Y, Hong X, Li X, Meshul CK, Moore C, Yang Y, Han Y, Li WG, Qi X, Lou H, Duan S, Xu TL, Tong X. (2021) NG2 glia-derived GABA release tunes inhibitory synapses and contributes to stress-induced anxiety. Nat Commun. 12(1):5740. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-25956-y.

Zhu F, Elnozahy S, Lawlor J, Kuchibhotla KV. The cholinergic basal forebrain provides a parallel channel for state-dependent sensory signaling to auditory cortex. (2023) Nat Neurosci. 26:810-819. doi: 10.1038/s41593-023-01289-5.

Yamada J, Maeda S, Tojo M, Hayashida M, Iinuma KM, Jinno S. (2023) Altered regulation of oligodendrocytes associated with parvalbumin neurons in the ventral hippocampus underlies fear generalization in male mice. Neuropsychopharm. 48:1668-1679. doi: 10.1038/s41386-023-01611-6.

Sun W, Liu Z, Jiang X, Chen MB, Dong H, Liu J, Südhof TC, Quake SR. (2024) Spatial transcriptomics reveal neuron-astrocyte synergy in long-term memory. Nature. Mar;627(8003):374-381. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-07011-6

Walker EY, Pohl S, Denison RN, Barack DL, Lee J, Block N, Ma WJ, Meyniel F. (2023) Studying the neural representations of uncertainty. Nature Neuroscience, 10.1038/s41593-023-01444-y

Asokan M.M., Watanabe Y., Kimchi E.Y., Polley D.B. (2023) Potentiation of cholinergic and corticofugal inputs to the lateral amygdala in threat learning. Cell Reports 42: 113167.

Yu H, Chen L, Lei H, Pi G, Xiong R, Jiang T, Wu D, Sun F, Gao Y, Li Y, Peng W, Huang B, Song G, Wang X, Lv J, Jin Z, Ke D, Yang Y, Wang JZ. (2022) Infralimbic medial prefrontal cortex signalling to calbindin 1 positive neurons in posterior basolateral amygdala suppresses anxiety- and depression-like behaviours. Nat Commun. 13:5462.

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LA Osso, KA Rankin, JR Chan (2021) Experience-dependent myelination following stress is mediated by the neuropeptide dynorphin Neuron 109: 3619-3632.e5

Rachel A. Walker, Rebecca L. Suthard, Taylor N. Perison, Nora M. Sheehan, Caitlin C. Dwyer, Jillian K. Lee, Eghosa K. Enabulele, Madelyn H. Ray and Michael A. McDannald (2022) Dorsal raphe 5-HT neurons utilize, but do not generate, negative aversive prediction errors eNeuro. 0132-21.2022

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Whittle N, Fadok J, MacPherson KP, Nguyen R, Botta P, Wolff SBE, Müller C, Herry C, Tovote P, Holmes A, Singewald N, Lüthi A, Ciocchi S. (2021) Central amygdala micro-circuits mediate fear extinction. Nat Comm 12: 4156

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Benamer N, Vidal M, Balia M, Angulo MC. (2020) Myelination of parvalbumin interneurons shapes the function of cortical sensory inhibitory circuits. Nat Communications 11:5151.

Cai LX, Pizano K, Gundersen GW, Hayes CL, Fleming WT, Holt S, Cox JM, Witten IB. (2020) Distinct signals in medial and lateral VTA dopamine neurons modulate fear extinction at different times. eLife: 9:e54936. doi:10.7554/eLife.54936.

Shine JM, Müller EJ, Munn B, Cabral J, Moran RJ, Breakspear M. (2021)
Computational models link cellular mechanisms of neuromodulation to large-scale neural dynamics. Nat Neurosci. doi: 10.1038/s41593-021-00824-6.

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Kim CK, Sanchez MI, Hoerbelt P., Fenno LE, Malenka RC, Deisseroth K, Ting AY (2020) A Molecular Calcium Integrator Reveals a Striatal Cell Type Driving Aversion. Cell 183: 2003-2019.

Pan S., Mayoral S.R., Choi H.S., Chan J.R., Kheirbek M. (2020) Preservation of a remote fear memory requires new myelin formation. Nat. Neurosci 23: 487-499.

Qin C, Bian XL, Wu HY, Xian JY, Cai CY, Lin YH, Zhou Y, Kou XL, Chang L, Luo CX, Zhu DY. (2020) Dorsal Hippocampus to Infralimbic Cortex Circuit is Essential for the Recall of Extinction Memory. Cereb Cortex Nov 14;bhaa320.

Cho KKA, Davidson TJ, Bouvier G, Marshall JD, Schnitzer MJ, Sohal VS. (2020) Cross-hemispheric gamma synchrony between prefrontal parvalbumin interneurons supports behavioral adaptation during rule shift learning. Nat Neurosci. 23:892-902.

Companion discussion paper:

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Gao C, Leng Y, Ma J, Rooke V, Rodriguez-Gonzalez S, Ramakrishnan C, Deisseroth K, Penzo MA. (2020) Two genetically, anatomically and functionally distinct cell types segregate across anteroposterior axis of paraventricular thalamus. Nat Neurosci. 23:217-228.

Zhang B, Ma S, Rachmin I, He M, Baral P, Choi S, Gonçalves WA, Shwartz Y, Fast EM, Su Y, Zon LI, Regev A, Buenrostro JD, Cunha TM, Chiu IM, Fisher DE, Hsu YC. (2020) Hyperactivation of sympathetic nerves drives depletion of melanocyte stem cells. Nature 577:676-681.

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Blume R.S., Padival M., Urban J.H., Rosenkranz A.J. (2019) Disruptive effects of repeated stress on basolateral amygdala neurons and fear behavior across the estrous cycle. Sci Rep 9:12292. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6707149/

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Kasugai Y, Vogel E, Hörtnagl H, Schönherr S, Paradiso E, Hauschild M, Göbel G, Milenkovic I, Peterschmitt Y, Tasan R, Sperk G, Shigemoto R, Sieghart W, Singewald N, Lüthi A, Ferraguti F. (2019) Structural and Functional Remodeling of Amygdala GABAergic Synapses in Associative Fear Learning. Neuron 104:1-14.

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Hasan MT, Althammer F, Silva da Gouveia M, Goyon S, Eliava M, Lefevre A, Kerspern D, Schimmer J, Raftogianni A, Wahis J, Knobloch-Bollmann HS, Tang Y, Liu X, Jain A, Chavant V, Goumon Y, Weislogel JM, Hurlemann R, Herpertz SC, Pitzer C, Darbon P, Dogbevia GK, Bertocchi I, Larkum ME, Sprengel R, Bading H, Charlet A, Grinevich V. (2019) A Fear Memory Engram and Its Plasticity in the Hypothalamic Oxytocin System. Neuron.103:133-146.e8.

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Baek J, Lee S, Cho T, Kim SW, Kim M, Yoon Y, Kim KK, Byun J, Kim SJ, Jeong J, Shin HS. (2019) Neural Circuits Underlying a Psycho-therapeutic Regimen for Fear Disorders. Nature, 566: 339.

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Ronovsky M, Zambon A, Cicvaric A, Boehm V, Hoesel B, Moser BA, Yang J, Schmid JA, Haubensak WE, Monje FJ, Pollak DD. (2019) A role for miR-132 in learned safety. Sci Reports 9: 528.

Seo C, Guru A, Jin M, Ito B, Sleezer BJ, Ho YY, Wang E, Boada C, Krupa NA, Kullakanda DS, Shen CX, Warden MR. (2019) Intense threat switches dorsal raphe serotonin neurons to a paradoxical operational mode. Science. 363:538-542.

Corder G., Ahanonu B., Grewe B.F., Wang D., Schnitzer M.J., Scherrer G. (2019) An amygdalar neural ensemble that encodes the unpleasantness of pain. Science 363: 276-281.

Zhang X., Li B. (2018) Population coding of valence in basolateral amygdala. Nat Comm 9: 5195.

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Miniscope workshop (Becky).

Day H.L.L., Reed M.M., Stevenson C.W. (2016) Sex differences in discriminating between cues predicting threat and safety. Neurobiol Learn Mem 133: 196-203.

Danielle and Margo are presenting posters on April 5 & 6 this week at the Undergraduate Research Conference.

A competitive inhibitory circuit for selection of active and passive fear responses.

Fadok JP, Krabbe S, Markovic M, Courtin J, Xu C, Massi L, Botta P, Bylund K, Müller C, Kovacevic A, Tovote P, Lüthi A.(2017) Nature, 542: 196.

An inhibitory pull-push circuit in frontal cortex.

Garcia-Junco-Clemente P., Ikrar T., Tring E., Xu X., Ringach D.L., Trachtenberg J.T. Nat Neurosci 20:389.

Gq/5-HT2c receptor signals activate a local GABAergic inhibitory feedback circuit to modulate serotonergic firing and anxiety in mice.

Spoida K, Masseck OA, Deneris ES, Herlitze S. PNAS 111:6479.

An intra-amygdala circuit specifically regulates social fear learning

Twinning R.C., Vantrease J.E., Love S., Padival M., Rosenkranz J.A. Nat Neurosci 20: 459. (2017)

Distinct hippocampal pathways mediate dissociable roles of context and memory retrieval.

Xu C., Krabbe S., Grundemann J., Botta P., Fadok J., Osakada F., Saur D., Grewe B.F., Schnitzer M.J., Callaway E.M., Luthi A.

Basal forebrain neuronal inhibition enables rapid behavioral stopping

Jeffrey D. Mayse, Geoffrey M. Nelson, Irene Avila, Michela Gallagher, and Shih-Chieh Lin,

Dysregulation of Prefrontal Cortex-Mediated Slow-Evolving Limbic Dynamics Drives Stress-Induced Emotional Pathology.

Hultman R, Mague SD, Li Q, Katz BM, Michel N, Lin L, Wang J, David LK, Blount C, Chandy R, Carlson D, Ulrich K, Carin L, Dunson D, Kumar S, Deisseroth K, Moore SD, Dzirasa K.

Cortical cholinergic signaling controls the detection of cues

Howard J. Grittona , William M. Howea , Caitlin S. Mallorya , Vaughn L. Hetricka , Joshua D. Berkea , and Martin Sartera,1

A shared neural ensemble links distinct contextual memories encoded close in time

Denise J. Cai1 *, Daniel Aharoni1,2,3*, Tristan Shuman2,3*, Justin Shobe1 *, Jeremy Biane4,5, Weilin Song1 , Brandon Wei1 , Michael Veshkini1 , Mimi La-Vu1 , Jerry Lou2,3, Sergio E. Flores2,3, Isaac Kim1 , Yoshitake Sano1 , Miou Zhou1 , Karsten Baumgaertel6, Ayal Lavi1 , Masakazu Kamata7 , Mark Tuszynski4,5, Mark Mayford6, Peyman Golshani2,3 & Alcino J. Silva1

Friday, 2/26: CNC Neuroscience Seminar - Pinar Ayata

February 24, 2021

Friday, February 26, 3pm EST

Pinar Ayata, Ph.D. (Advanced Science Research Center, CUNY)

Functional States of Microglia and Health and Disease

Please email or DM @ELikhtik to join the seminar via Zoom.

Talk today 2/3 at 2pm EST!

February 03, 2021

Amanda Russo (SUNY Stonybrook)

Behavioral and Neural Correlates of Individual Variation in Fear Extinction

email el1417 at hunter dot cuny dot edu to join

CNC Neuroscience Seminar 1/29 @ 3pm EST - Timothy Bredy

January 29, 2021

Our CNC Colloquium is back for the Spring semester.

Friday, 1/29, 3:00 - 4:30pm EST

Long noncoding RNAs and Memory, Timothy Bredy (Queensland Brain Institute)

Please email to attend: el1417 at hunter dot cuny dot edu

New Paper Out

January 27, 2021

We are interested in translating our safety learning work to humans in order to decrease anxiety. To this end, we are collaborating with Dr. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary’s Emotion Regulation Lab . In a new paper, we outline our ideas for how to more seamlessly study the effects of safety learning on anxiety across the species.

Cho, H., Likhtik, E. & Dennis-Tiwary, T.A. Absence Makes the Mind Grow Fonder: Reconceptualizing Studies of Safety Learning in Translational Research on Anxiety. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci (2021).

New paper out

December 07, 2020

In our new review paper, “White Matter Plasticity in Anxiety: Disruption of Neural Network Synchronization during Threat-Safety Discrimination”, we argue that stress- and anxiety-related disorders are associated with altered myelin plasticity. In turn, changes in myelin plasticity, compromise synchronous communication within circuits that are crucial for proper learning of threat - safety discrimination.

Liu J., Likhtik E., Shereen D.A., Dennis-Tiwary T.A., Casaccia P. (2020) White Matter Plasticity in Anxiety: Disruption of Neural Network Synchronization during Threat-Safety Discrimination. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience.

12/4 Friday CNC Seminar - Jan Grundemann

December 02, 2020

Friday, December 4, 3:00 - 4:30 pm

Imaging deep: sensory and state coding in subcortical circuits

Dr. Jan Gründemann (University of Basel)

Email el1417 at hunter dot cuny dot edu to attend

11/25 CNC Neuroscience Seminar - Annalisa Scimemi

November 24, 2020

Wednesday, Nov. 25, 3:00 - 4:30pm

Circadian modulation of hippocampal function

Dr. Annalisa Scimemi (SUNY Albany)

Email el1417 at hunter dot cuny dot edu to attend

CNC Neuroscience Seminar - Carmel Martin-Fairey

November 13, 2020

Friday, November 13, 2020 3:00 - 4:30pm

A Time to Deliver

Dr. Carmel Martin-Fairey (Harris-Stowe State University)

Dr. Martin-Fairey will discuss the roles that genetic and environmental disruptions of circadian rhythms play in risks for preterm birth.

Please email el1417 at hunter dot cuny dot edu to attend

CNC Neuroscience Seminar - Ivan de Araujo

November 03, 2020

Friday, November 6, 2020, 3:00 - 4:30pm

The Gut-Brain Axis and Reward

Dr. Ivan de Araujo (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)

Please email el1417 at hunter dot cuny dot edu for link to attend

Neuroscience Seminar: Nesha Burghardt

October 16, 2020

Friday, October 16th, 3:00 - 4:30 pm

Vulnerable and Resilient Phenotypes in a Mouse Model of Anorexia Nervosa.

Dr. Nesha Burghardt (Hunter College, CUNY)

Please email el1417 at hunter dot cuny dot edu for link to attend

New paper out

October 13, 2020

How can we boost the ability to learn about safety? When we amplify the salience of stimuli that signal safety, we improve their effectiveness. But that’s not all - we also improve discrimination of new non-threatening stimuli, and increase exploration of new environments, thereby decreasing generalized fear.

Our new paper is out showing these positive behavioral effects of Salient Safety training in the Safety issue of Behavioural Brain Research.

Nahmoud I., Ganay Vasquez J., Cho H., Dennis-Tiwary T., Likhtik E. (2020) Salient safety conditioning improves novel discrimination learning. Behav Brain Res 397: 112907.

We Welcome Emma to the lab!

October 05, 2020

Emma Denholtz has officially joined the lab and is fully immersed in our work on circuits that encode safety signaling in the brain. In this period of uncertainty (and associated anxiety), we’re very interested in figuring out how the brain extracts information about cues that organisms rely on for safety, as a means to relieve anxiety. Emma is working on using behavior, electrophysiology, neuroanatomy, and calcium signaling to delve into this question. Happy to have you on board!

July 13th - FENS virtual seminar session (13:00 - 14:30 British Summer Time!)

July 13, 2020

If you are attending FENS, virtually stop in to say hello at our session, where we on focus on how to develop new therapeutic approaches to battle fearful and addictive memories.

S32 - The eternal sunshine of the spotless mind: recent advances to reduce fear and addictive memories

Bianca Silva (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne): A thalamo-amygdalar circuit underlying the extinction of remote fear memories

Kerry Ressler (Harvard Medical School): Biomarkers of Trauma Response and Recovery: Intermediate Phenotypes as Targets for Interfering with Trauma Memories?

Ekaterina Likhtik (Hunter College, CUNY): Safety training as a therapeutic tool to improve fear discrimination: translational implications.

Amy Milton (University of Cambridge): Preventing Drug Relapse by Modifying Memories: Challenges and Opportunities in Exploiting Reconsolidation to Treat Addiction.

New pre-print out on BioRxiv

June 25, 2020

Salient Safety Conditioning Improves Novel Discrimination Learning.

Overgeneralized fear is a prevalent symptom in disorders of anxiety, and we are interested in finding therapeutic approaches to increase discrimination of non-threat in high-anxiety populations. We show that high anxiety mice (that also typically have high overgeneralized fear, like humans), improve in learning outcomes and discriminate non-threatening stimuli better after we train them on salient safety cues. It’s possible that our salient safety paradigm, trains the same networks as will later be active during non-threatening stimuli.

Great teamwork by Itzik and Jenny in the lab!

Does Wikipedia do a good job covering the work that women do in STEM?

June 22, 2020

In their blog piece, Rebecca Zhang from the lab and Mackenzie Lemieux from Kay Tye’s lab (Salk Institute) highlight how building Wikipedia pages for women in STEM is a game changer for disseminating the scientific accomplishments of women working in science. The recognition has a myriad benefits, including helping prospective graduate students, like Rebecca, find out about potential mentors and pinpoint suitable graduate programs that might never be discovered otherwise.

Take a read!

Congratulations to Jenny on winning the Jonas E. Salk Scholarship!

June 08, 2020

Jenny will be heading off to University of Rochester Medical School with a Jonas E. Salk Scholarship for her excellent work in the lab on how safety learning positively impacts other behaviors, and the brain. This work has clinical applications and we look forward to checking in on her progress as she learns about other ways to keep everyone healthy.

Talk at the Advanced Science Research Center

June 01, 2020

Looking forward to sharing our work at the ASRC Lunch & Learn online seminar series on Thursday, June 4th from 12:00 - 1:30.

I will be discussing “Novel pathways of fear suppression learning”.

email el1417 at hunter dot cuny dot edu if you are interesting in attending.

Congratulations to Rebecca on winning the Fulbright Scholarship!

May 19, 2020

In the fall, Rebecca will be heading off to Germany to work with Nadine Gogolla at the Max Plank Institute of Neurobiology to study the insular cortex. In the lab Rebecca has been working on the pathways linking the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and the basal forebrain in emotion regulation, which is a perfect segue for this next stage in her research career. Awesome job!