The lateral habenula integrates age and experience to promote social transitions in developing rats.

ABSTRACT: Social behavior deficits are an early-emerging marker of psychopathology and are linked with early caregiving quality. However, the infant neural substrates linking early care to social development are poorly understood. Here, we focused on the infant lateral habenula (LHb), a highly-conserved brain region at the nexus between forebrain and monoaminergic circuits. Despite its consistent links to adult psychopathology, this brain region has been understudied in development when the brain is most vulnerable to environmental impacts. In a task combining social and threat cues, suppressing LHb principal neurons had opposing effects in infants versus juveniles, suggesting the LHb promotes a developmental switch in social approach behavior under threat. We observed that early caregiving adversit

SUBMITTER: Cobb-Lewis D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10802604 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature