Optogenetic Stimulation of Prelimbic Pyramidal Neurons Maintains Fear Memories and Modulates Amygdala Pyramidal Neuron Transcriptome

Fear extinction requires coordinated neural activity within the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Any behavior has a transcriptomic signature that is modified by environmental experiences, specific genes are involved in functional plasticity synaptic wiring during fear extinction. Here, we investigated effects of optogenetic manipulations prelimbic (PrL) pyramidal neurons gene expression to analyze transcriptional pathways associated adaptive maladaptive To this aim, transgenic mice were (or not) fear-conditioned phase they received sham) stimulations over photo-activable PrL neurons. At end behavioral testing, electrophysiological (neural cellular excitability Excitatory Post-Synaptic Currents) morphological (spinogenesis) correlates evaluated Furthermore, cell-specific RNA-analyses (differential profiling enrichment analyses) performed Our results show activation induces deficits, reflected an increase excitability, excitatory neurotransmission, spinogenesis neurons, strong modifications transcriptome Understanding electrophysiological, morphological, architecture may facilitate comprehension fear-related disorders.