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Background: Extinguishing conditioned fear responses is vital for adaptive behavior, and its failure contributes to anxiety disorders such as PTSD. The basolateral amygdala (BLA) contains anterior Rspo2⁺ neurons driving fear and posterior Ppp1r1b⁺ neurons encoding reward and extinction. Although extinction memory forms in the Ppp1r1b⁺ neurons, the signal that initiates this process was unknown. Dopaminergic activity from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) has been proposed...

Background: Neuronal activity in the primary somatosensory cortex (wS1) is influenced by both sensory stimuli and spontaneous movements, yet the organization of circuits that support this functional diversity remains unclear. Prior studies have shown that neuromodulators and thalamic activity correlate with behavioral state, but how these inputs contribute to movement-related cortical activity at the level of single neurons is poorly understood.   Hypothesis: This study hypothesized that...

Background: Levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID) is a common side effect of long-term dopamine replacement therapy in Parkinson’s disease, producing involuntary movements. The striatum integrates dopaminergic and glutamatergic input to control movement, but the cellular mechanisms that lead to the abnormal activation of specific neuronal subtypes during LID remain unclear.   Hypothesis: This study hypothesized that striatal direct pathway medium spiny neurons (dMSNs) activated during dyskinesia possess heightened dopamine...

Background: Understanding neural circuits requires whole-brain mapping of specific neuronal connections within a standardized framework. Although modern genetic and viral tools allow precise labeling of neurons, integrating these data into complete brain reconstructions using conventional histological methods has been difficult.   Hypothesis: This study hypothesized that whole mouse brain reconstructions from conventionally sectioned and processed tissue can be accurately registered to a common reference atlas, enabling quantitative...

Background: Spinal projecting neurons (SPNs) transmit descending motor, sensory and autonomic commands from the brain to the spinal cord. Although their importance in voluntary movement and homeostatic regulation is well established, the molecular diversity and organization of SPNs across the entire brain have remained poorly characterized.   Hypothesis: This study hypothesized that distinct transcriptional signatures define discrete classes of SPNs, whose molecular identities correspond to their anatomical...

Background: Reliable identification of brain regions in histologic mouse brain sections is essential for neuroanatomical, genomic and connectomic analyses but is often limited by human error and variability when using traditional atlases. Manual matching of experimental sections to reference atlases is particularly challenging when sectioning planes differ, highlighting the need for an automated and objective solution.   Hypothesis: This study hypothesized that an automated system, NeuroInfo, could...

Background: The cerebral cortex communicates with the striatum through two major classes of layer 5 pyramidal neurons: intratelencephalic-type (IT-type) and pyramidal tract-type (PT-type). While both contribute to topographically organized corticostriatal circuits, how their projection patterns differ across cortical areas remains unclear. Clarifying these differences is essential to understanding how sensory and motor information are integrated in the basal ganglia.   Hypothesis: This study hypothesized that IT-type and...