Central medial thalamic nucleus dynamically participates in acute itch sensation and chronic itch-induced anxiety-like behavior in male mice

Jia-Ni Li, Xue-Mei Wu, Liu-Jie Zhao, Han-Xue Sun, Jie Hong, Feng-Ling Wu, Si-Hai Chen, Tao Chen, Hui Li, Yu-Lin Dong () and Yun-Qing Li ()
Additional contact information
Jia-Ni Li: The Fourth Military Medical University
Xue-Mei Wu: The Fourth Military Medical University
Liu-Jie Zhao: The Fourth Military Medical University
Han-Xue Sun: The Fourth Military Medical University
Jie Hong: The Fourth Military Medical University
Feng-Ling Wu: The Fourth Military Medical University
Si-Hai Chen: The Fourth Military Medical University
Tao Chen: The Fourth Military Medical University
Hui Li: The Fourth Military Medical University
Yu-Lin Dong: The Fourth Military Medical University
Yun-Qing Li: The Fourth Military Medical University

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Itch is an annoying sensation consisting of both sensory and emotional components. It is known to involve the parabrachial nucleus (PBN), but the following transmission nodes remain elusive. The present study identified that the PBN-central medial thalamic nucleus (CM)-medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) pathway is essential for itch signal transmission at the supraspinal level in male mice. Chemogenetic inhibition of the CM-mPFC pathway attenuates scratching behavior or chronic itch-related affective responses. CM input to mPFC pyramidal neurons is enhanced in acute and chronic itch models. Specifically chronic itch stimuli also alter mPFC interneuron involvement, resulting in enhanced feedforward inhibition and a distorted excitatory/inhibitory balance in mPFC pyramidal neurons. The present work underscores CM as a transmit node of the itch signal in the thalamus, which is dynamically engaged in both the sensory and affective dimensions of itch with different stimulus salience.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38264-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-38264-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38264-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().