The rostroventral part of the thalamic reticular nucleus modulates fear extinction

The thalamus has been implicated in fear extinction, yet the role of the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) in this process remains unclear. Here, in mice, we show that the rostroventral part of the TRN (TRNrv) is critically involved in the extinction of tone-dependent fear memory. Optogenetic excitat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2019-10, Vol.10 (1), p.4637-12, Article 4637
Main Authors: Lee, Joon-Hyuk, Latchoumane, Charles-Francois V., Park, Jungjoon, Kim, Jinhyun, Jeong, Jaeseung, Lee, Kwang-Hyung, Shin, Hee-Sup
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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Alliances
Amygdala
Animals
Behavior, Animal
Circuits
Conditioning
Fear
Fear conditioning
Firing pattern
Freezing Reaction, Cataleptic
Humanities and Social Sciences
Limbic System - physiology
Male
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
multidisciplinary
Neurons
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Stimuli
Thalamic Nuclei - physiology
Thalamic reticular nucleus
Thalamus
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Summary:The thalamus has been implicated in fear extinction, yet the role of the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) in this process remains unclear. Here, in mice, we show that the rostroventral part of the TRN (TRNrv) is critically involved in the extinction of tone-dependent fear memory. Optogenetic excitation of TRNrv neurons during extinction learning dramatically facilitated, whereas the inhibition disrupted, the fear extinction. Single unit recordings demonstrated that TRNrv neurons selectively respond to conditioned stimuli but not to neutral stimuli. TRNrv neurons suppressed the spiking activity of the medial part of the dorsal midline thalamus (dMTm), and a blockade of this inhibitory pathway disrupted fear extinction. Finally, we found that the suppression of dMTm projections to the central amygdala promotes fear extinction, and TRNrv neurons have direct connections to this pathway. Our results uncover a previously unknown function of the TRN and delineate the neural circuit for thalamic control of fear memory. The precise role of the thalamic reticular nucleus in fear is not understood. Here, the authors report that the rostroventral part of the reticular nucleus is involved in the extinction of tone conditioned fear memory through its inhibitory projections to the dorsal midline thalamus.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-019-12496-9