Aberrant cortical projections to amygdala GABAergic neurons contribute to developmental circuit dysfunction following early life stress.

ABSTRACT: Early life stress (ELS) results in enduring dysfunction of the corticolimbic circuitry, underlying emotional and social behavior. However, the neurobiological mechanisms involved remain elusive. Here, we have combined viral tracing and electrophysiological techniques to study the effects of maternal separation (MS) on frontolimbic connectivity and function in young (P14-21) rats. We report that aberrant prefrontal inputs to basolateral amygdala (BLA) GABAergic interneurons transiently increase the strength of feed-forward inhibition in the BLA, which raises LTP induction threshold in MS treated male rats. The enhanced GABAergic activity after MS exposure associates with lower functional synchronization within prefrontal-amygdala networks in vivo. Intriguingly, no differences in thes

SUBMITTER: Haikonen J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9792886 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature