A ventral pallidum-locus coeruleus-lateral hypothalamus pathway modulates brain arousal in freely behaving and isoflurane-anesthetized male mice.

ABSTRACT: Much progress has been made in the understanding of the neural circuits associated with sleep and anesthesia. As an important component among these circuits, the forebrain nuclei have been frequently interrogated. This study demonstrates that glutamatergic (Glu) neurons in the ventral pallidum (VP) enhance activity upon salient stimuli and state-dependently modulate brain arousal and motor activity in freely behaving male mice, and bidirectionally regulate the induction of and emergence from isoflurane general anesthesia. We delineate a neural pathway, consisting of VP Glu neurons→ noradrenergic (NA) neurons in the locus coeruleus (LC)→the lateral hypothalamus (LH) in male mice, controlling the release of noradrenaline in the LH and state-dependently modulated brain arousal, motor activity

SUBMITTER: Xu XY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12084612 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature