Hypothalamic deep brain stimulation as a strategy to manage anxiety disorders.

ABSTRACT: Fear is essential for survival, but excessive anxiety behavior is debilitating. Anxiety disorders affecting millions of people are a global health problem, where new therapies and targets are much needed. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is established as a therapy in several neurological disorders, but is underexplored in anxiety disorders. The lateral hypothalamus (LH) has been recently revealed as an origin of anxiogenic brain signals, suggesting a target for anxiety treatment. Here, we develop and validate a DBS strategy for modulating anxiety-like symptoms by targeting the LH. We identify a DBS waveform that rapidly inhibits anxiety-implicated LH neural activity and suppresses innate and learned anxiety behaviors in a variety of mouse models. Importantly, we show that the LH DBS displays

SUBMITTER: Li HT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9169742 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature