scholarly journals Modulation of Memory Formation by Stimulus Content: Specific Role of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex in the Successful Encoding of Social Pictures

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe-Olivier Harvey ◽  
Philippe Fossati ◽  
Martin Lepage
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Imaging Study ◽  
Memory Formation ◽  
Analytical Strategy ◽  
Stimulus Content ◽  
Variable Contribution ◽  
The Brain

It is unclear whether the involvement of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during encoding is restricted to the evaluative processing of to-be-encoded stimuli or if it is instead actively engaged during memory formation. The difficulty of assessing the contribution of the mPFC to encoding based on previous neuroimaging studies partly arises from the use of several types of stimuli, such as emotional or social ones. These different types of stimulus content could differently modulate mPFC activity during memory formation and thus partly explain the variable contribution of this region to encoding. Using emotional/neutral and social/nonsocial pictures, we conducted an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study using a subsequent memory paradigm as the main analytical strategy. We observed that the brain activity in the dorsal and orbital mPFC is significantly and specifically predictive of the successful encoding of social compared with nonsocial pictures. In contrast, the activity in the amygdala specifically predicts the successful encoding of emotional compared with neutral pictures. The modulation of the mPFC by social information in a memory encoding context could be associated with the initiation of self-referential processes whose contribution is to enhance memory formation.

scholarly journals Proteomic Profiling of Astrocytic O-GlcNAc Transferase-Related Proteins in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Fan ◽  
Qiu-Ling Zhong ◽  
Ran Mo ◽  
Cheng-Lin Lu ◽  
Jing Ren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Transferase Activity ◽  
Proteomic Profiling ◽  
Major Energy Source ◽  
Altered Proteins ◽  
Glcnac Transferase ◽  
Related Proteins ◽  
The Brain

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a key part of the brain networks that are closely related to the regulation of behavior, acts as a key regulator in emotion, social cognition, and decision making. Astrocytes are the majority cell type of glial cells, which play a significant role in a number of processes and establish a suitable environment for the functioning of neurons, including the brain energy metabolism. Astrocyte’s dysfunction in the mPFC has been implicated in various neuropsychiatric disorders. Glucose is a major energy source in the brain. In glucose metabolism, part of glucose is used to convert UDP-GlcNAc as a donor molecule for O-GlcNAcylation, which is controlled by a group of enzymes, O-GlcNAc transferase enzyme (OGT), and O-GlcNAcase (OGA). However, the role of O-GlcNAcylation in astrocytes is almost completely unknown. Our research showed that astrocytic OGT could influence the expression of proteins in the mPFC. Most of these altered proteins participate in metabolic processes, transferase activity, and biosynthetic processes. GFAP, an astrocyte maker, was increased after OGT deletion. These results provide a framework for further study on the role of astrocytic OGT/O-GlcNAcylation in the mPFC.

scholarly journals Insula to mPFC reciprocal connectivity differentially underlies novel taste neophobic response and learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haneen Kayyal ◽  
Sailendrakumar Kolatt Chandran ◽  
Adonis Yiannakas ◽  
Nathaniel Gould ◽  
Mohammad Khamaisy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Insular Cortex ◽  
Memory Formation ◽  
Intrinsic Properties ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Taste Experience ◽  
Neophobic Response

To survive in an ever-changing environment, animals must detect and learn salient information. The anterior insular cortex (aIC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are heavily implicated in salience and novelty processing, and specifically, the processing of taste sensory information. Here, we examined the role of aIC-mPFC reciprocal connectivity in novel taste neophobia and memory formation, in mice. Using pERK and neuronal intrinsic properties as markers for neuronal activation, and retrograde AAV (rAAV) constructs for connectivity, we demonstrate a correlation between aIC-mPFC activity and novel taste experience. Furthermore, by expressing inhibitory chemogenetic receptors in these projections, we show that aIC-to-mPFC activity is necessary for both taste neophobia and its attenuation. However, activity within mPFC-to-aIC projections is essential only for the neophobic reaction but not for the learning process. These results provide an insight into the cortical circuitry needed to detect, react to- and learn salient stimuli, a process critically involved in psychiatric disorders.

scholarly journals The Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Fear Memory: Dynamics, Connectivity, and Engrams

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (22) ◽  
pp. 12113
Author(s):  
Lucie Dixsaut ◽  
Johannes Gräff
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Memory Formation ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Long Term Storage ◽  
And Storage

It is becoming increasingly apparent that long-term memory formation relies on a distributed network of brain areas. While the hippocampus has been at the center of attention for decades, it is now clear that other regions, in particular the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), are taking an active part as well. Recent evidence suggests that the mPFC—traditionally implicated in the long-term storage of memories—is already critical for the early phases of memory formation such as encoding. In this review, we summarize these findings, relate them to the functional importance of the mPFC connectivity, and discuss the role of the mPFC during memory consolidation with respect to the different theories of memory storage. Owing to its high functional connectivity to other brain areas subserving memory formation and storage, the mPFC emerges as a central hub across the lifetime of a memory, although much still remains to be discovered.

scholarly journals Insula to mPFC reciprocal connectivity differentially underlies novel taste neophobic response and learning

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haneen Kayyal ◽  
Sailendrakumar Kolatt Chandran ◽  
Adonis Yiannakas ◽  
Nathaniel Gould ◽  
Mohammad Khamaisy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Insular Cortex ◽  
Memory Formation ◽  
Intrinsic Properties ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Taste Experience ◽  
Neophobic Response

To survive in an ever-changing environment, animals must detect and learn salient information. The anterior insular cortex (aIC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are heavily implicated in salience and novelty processing, and specifically, the processing of taste sensory information. Here, we examined the role of aIC-mPFC reciprocal connectivity in novel taste neophobia and memory formation, in mice. Using pERK and neuronal intrinsic properties as markers for neuronal activation, and retrograde AAV (rAAV) constructs for connectivity, we demonstrate a correlation between aIC-mPFC activity and novel taste experience. Furthermore, by expressing inhibitory chemogenetic receptors in these projections, we show that aIC-to-mPFC activity is necessary for both taste neophobia and its attenuation. However, activity within mPFC-to-aIC projections is essential only for the neophobic reaction but not for the learning process. These results provide an insight into the cortical circuitry needed to detect, react to- and learn salient stimuli, a process critically involved in psychiatric disorders.

scholarly journals Consciousness, decision making, and volition: freedom beyond chance and necessity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Liljenström
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Neural Information ◽  
Neural Information Processing ◽  
Stochastic Population Model ◽  
The Brain

AbstractWhat is the role of consciousness in volition and decision-making? Are our actions fully determined by brain activity preceding our decisions to act, or can consciousness instead affect the brain activity leading to action? This has been much debated in philosophy, but also in science since the famous experiments by Libet in the 1980s, where the current most common interpretation is that conscious free will is an illusion. It seems that the brain knows, up to several seconds in advance what “you” decide to do. These studies have, however, been criticized, and alternative interpretations of the experiments can be given, some of which are discussed in this paper. In an attempt to elucidate the processes involved in decision-making (DM), as an essential part of volition, we have developed a computational model of relevant brain structures and their neurodynamics. While DM is a complex process, we have particularly focused on the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) for its emotional, and the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) for its cognitive aspects. In this paper, we present a stochastic population model representing the neural information processing of DM. Simulation results seem to confirm the notion that if decisions have to be made fast, emotional processes and aspects dominate, while rational processes are more time consuming and may result in a delayed decision. Finally, some limitations of current science and computational modeling will be discussed, hinting at a future development of science, where consciousness and free will may add to chance and necessity as explanation for what happens in the world.

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