Combined Social and Spatial Coding in a Descending Projection from the Prefrontal Cortex

Malavika Murugan; Hee Jae Jang; Michelle Park; Ellia M Miller; Julia Cox; Joshua P Taliaferro; Nathan F Parker; Varun Bhave; Hong Hur; Yupu Liang; Alexander R Nectow; Jonathan W Pillow; Ilana B Witten

doi:10.1016/j.cell.2017.11.002

Combined Social and Spatial Coding in a Descending Projection from the Prefrontal Cortex

Cell. 2017 Dec 14;171(7):1663-1677.e16. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.11.002. Epub 2017 Dec 7.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
² Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
³ CCTS Bioinformatics Program, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065, USA.
⁴ Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Center for Statistics and Machine Learning, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
⁵ Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. Electronic address: iwitten@princeton.edu.

Abstract

Social behaviors are crucial to all mammals. Although the prelimbic cortex (PL, part of medial prefrontal cortex) has been implicated in social behavior, it is not clear which neurons are relevant or how they contribute. We found that PL contains anatomically and molecularly distinct subpopulations that target three downstream regions that have been implicated in social behavior: the nucleus accumbens (NAc), amygdala, and ventral tegmental area. Activation of NAc-projecting PL neurons (PL-NAc), but not the other subpopulations, decreased the preference for a social target. To determine what information PL-NAc neurons convey, we selectively recorded from them and found that individual neurons were active during social investigation, but only in specific spatial locations. Spatially specific manipulation of these neurons bidirectionally regulated the formation of a social-spatial association. Thus, the unexpected combination of social and spatial information within the PL-NAc may contribute to social behavior by supporting social-spatial learning.

Keywords: calcium imaging; medial prefrontal cortex; nucleus accumbens; optogenetics; social behavior.

MeSH terms

Amygdala / physiology
Animals
Learning
Limbic System*
Mice
Neural Pathways
Neurons / cytology*
Neurons / physiology
Nucleus Accumbens / cytology*
Nucleus Accumbens / physiology
Prefrontal Cortex / cytology*
Prefrontal Cortex / physiology
Social Behavior*
Spatial Behavior*
Ventral Tegmental Area / physiology

Abstract

MeSH terms

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