Science 2011 Nov;334 (6056): 693-7. [IF:31.364]
Bidirectional control of social hierarchy by synaptic efficacy in medial prefrontal cortex.
Wang F , Zhu J , Zhu H , Zhang Q , Lin Z , Hu H .
Institute of Neuroscience and State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
中国科学院上海生命科学研究院神经科学国家重点实验室
Abstract
Dominance hierarchy has a profound impact on animals' survival, health, and reproductive success, but its neural circuit mechanism is virtually unknown. We found that dominance ranking in mice is transitive, relatively stable, and highly correlates among multiple behavior measures. Recording from layer V pyramidal neurons of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) showed higher strength of excitatory synaptic inputs in mice with higher ranking, as compared with their subordinate cage mates. Furthermore, molecular manipulations that resulted in an increase and decrease in the synaptic efficacy in dorsal mPFC neurons caused an upward and downward movement in the social rank, respectively. These results provide direct evidence for mPFC's involvement in social hierarchy and suggest that social rank is plastic and can be tuned by altering synaptic strength in mPFC pyramidal cells.
摘要:
统治阶层对动物的生存、健康和繁殖有深远的影响，但实际上它的神经回路机制尚不明确。我们发现小鼠的优势阶层是可传递的，相对稳定的，且在多重行为测定中高度相关。来自于内侧前额叶皮质的V椎体神经元阶层的记录显示相较于他们的下级高等级的小鼠的兴奋性突触输入有较高的效能。此外，导致背侧的内侧前额皮质的突触效能的增加或减少的分子处理分别引起社会阶层向上和向下的运动。这些结果为内侧前额皮质对社会阶层的影响提供了直接证据，并提示社会等级是可变的，且能通过改变内侧前额皮质椎体细胞的突触效能被调整。
