The hippocampal CA2 region discriminates social threat from social safety.

ABSTRACT: The dorsal cornu ammonis 2 (dCA2) region of the hippocampus enables the discrimination of novel from familiar conspecifics. However, the neural bases for more complex social-spatial episodic memories are unknown. Here we report that the spatial and social contents of an aversive social experience require distinct hippocampal regions. While dorsal CA1 (dCA1) pyramidal neurons mediate the memory of an aversive location, dCA2 pyramidal neurons enable the discrimination of threat-associated (CS⁺) from safety-associated (CS^-) conspecifics in both female and male mice. Silencing dCA2 during encoding or recall trials disrupted social fear discrimination memory, resulting in fear responses toward both the CS⁺ and CS^- mice. Calcium imaging revealed that t

SUBMITTER: Kassraian P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12688395 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature