Anxiety Cells in a Hippocampal-Hypothalamic Circuit

Overview

Journal Neuron

Publisher Cell Press

Specialty Neurology

Date 2018 Feb 5

PMID 29397273

Citations 255

Authors

Jessica C Jimenez

Katy Su

Alexander R Goldberg

Victor M Luna

Jeremy S Biane

Gokhan Ordek

Pengcheng Zhou

Samantha K Ong

Matthew A Wright

Larry Zweifel

Liam Paninski

Rene Hen

Mazen A Kheirbek

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The hippocampus is traditionally thought to transmit contextual information to limbic structures where it acquires valence. Using freely moving calcium imaging and optogenetics, we show that while the dorsal CA1 subregion of the hippocampus is enriched in place cells, ventral CA1 (vCA1) is enriched in anxiety cells that are activated by anxiogenic environments and required for avoidance behavior. Imaging cells defined by their projection target revealed that anxiety cells were enriched in the vCA1 population projecting to the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) but not to the basal amygdala (BA). Consistent with this selectivity, optogenetic activation of vCA1 terminals in LHA but not BA increased anxiety and avoidance, while activation of terminals in BA but not LHA impaired contextual fear memory. Thus, the hippocampus encodes not only neutral but also valence-related contextual information, and the vCA1-LHA pathway is a direct route by which the hippocampus can rapidly influence innate anxiety behavior.

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