Altered function in medial prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens links to stress-induced behavioral inflexibility
Abstract
The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and its output area, the nucleus accumbens (NAc), are implicated in mediating attentional set-shifting. Patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exhibit difficulties in the disengagement of attention from traumatic cues, which is associated with impairments in set-shifting ability. However, unknown is whether alterations in corticostriatal function underlie deficits in this behavioral flexibility in individuals with PTSD. An animal model of single prolonged stress (SPS) has been partially validated as a model for PTSD, in which SPS rats recapitulate the pathophysiological abnormalities and behavioral characteristics of PTSD. In the present study, we firstly found that exposure to SPS impaired the ability in the shift from visual-cue learning to place response discrimination in rats. Conversely, SPS induced no effect on a place-to-cue set-shifting performance. Based on SPS-impaired set-shifting model, we used Western blot and immunofluorescent approaches to clarify SPS-induced alternations in synaptic plasticity and neuronal activation in the mPFC and NAc. Rats that were subjected to SPS exhibited a large increase in pSer845-GluA1 and total GluA1 levels in the mPFC, while no significant change in the NAc. We further found that exposure to SPS significantly decreased c-Fos expression in the NAc core but not the shell after set-shifting behavior. Whereas, enhanced c-Fos expression was observed in prelimbic and infralimbic cortices. C…
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Abnormal hyperactivity in the medial PFC combined with dysfunction in the nucleus accumbens core is associated with long term deficits in executive function in rats exposed to prolonged stress.
“For example, Piao et al. [79] found that abnormal hyperactivity in the medial PFC combined with dysfunction in the nucleus accumbens core associated with long term deficits in executive function in rats exposed to prolonged stress.”
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- Authors
- Piao, C., Deng, X., Wang, X., Yuan, Y., Liu, Z., & Liang, J.
- Affiliations
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Liang, Jing
- Venue
- Behavioural Brain Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-01
- Volume
- 317
- Pages
- 16-26
- ISSN
- 0166-4328 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2519032996
- Cited by
- 23
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3
- FWCI
- 2.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Behavioural Brain Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Institutional Repository of Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (31271098, 31571108)
- National Key Basic Research Program of China (2015CB553501)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- post-traumatic stress disorder, single prolonged stress, set-shifting, behavioral flexibility, medial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, GluA1 phosphorylation, synaptic plasticity, Fos expression, corticostriatal circuits, executive function, traumatic stress
- MeSH terms
- Analysis of Variance, Animals, Association Learning, Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity, Cognition Disorders, Cues, Disease Models, Animal, Male, Nucleus Accumbens, Phosphorylation, Photic Stimulation, Stress, Psychological, Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Prefrontal Cortex, Receptors, AMPA, Rats, Executive Function
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