Excitatory VTA to DH projections provide a valence signal to memory circuits

Yuan Han, Yi Zhang, Haram Kim, Viktoriya S. Grayson, Vladimir Jovasevic, Wenjie Ren, Maria V. Centeno, Anita L. Guedea, Mariah A. A. Meyer, Yixin Wu, Philipp Gutruf, Dalton J. Surmeier, Can Gao, Marco Martina, Apkar V. Apkarian, John A. Rogers and Jelena Radulovic ()
Additional contact information
Yuan Han: Northwestern University
Yi Zhang: Northwestern University
Haram Kim: Northwestern University
Viktoriya S. Grayson: Northwestern University
Vladimir Jovasevic: Northwestern University
Wenjie Ren: Northwestern University
Maria V. Centeno: Northwestern University
Anita L. Guedea: Northwestern University
Mariah A. A. Meyer: Northwestern University
Yixin Wu: Northwestern University
Philipp Gutruf: Northwestern University
Dalton J. Surmeier: Northwestern University
Can Gao: Xuzhou Medical University
Marco Martina: Northwestern University
Apkar V. Apkarian: Northwestern University
John A. Rogers: Northwestern University
Jelena Radulovic: Northwestern University

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract The positive or negative value (valence) of past experiences is normally integrated into neuronal circuits that encode episodic memories and plays an important role in guiding behavior. Here, we show, using mouse behavioral models, that glutamatergic afferents from the ventral tegmental area to the dorsal hippocampus (VTA→DH) signal negative valence to memory circuits, leading to the formation of fear-inducing context memories and to context-specific reinstatement of fear. To a lesser extent, these projections also contributed to opioid-induced place preference, suggesting a role in signaling positive valence as well, and thus a lack of dedicated polarity. Manipulations of VTA terminal activity were more effective in females and paralleled by sex differences in glutamatergic signaling. By prioritizing retrieval of negative and positive over neutral memories, the VTA→DH circuit can facilitate the selection of adaptive behaviors when current and past experiences are valence congruent.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15035-z 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:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-15035-z

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15035-z

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 ().