Stress or calm
Disabling certain brain cells protects against stress
Svetlana Maslova, Hi-tech+
Japanese scientists have discovered a small group of neurons that is crucial for the psychological state. By manipulating their activity, they plan to provide treatment and prevention of depression, as well as to study the origin of mental disorders.
Chronic stress is the main risk factor for mental disorders, but the exact mechanisms underlying the stress response are poorly understood. Researchers from Osaka University has made an important discovery in this area: they showed that a group of cells in the claustrum controls stress-related reactions, according to the press release ‘Switching off’ specific brain cells protects against stress.
The claustrum, or brain fence, is the thinnest layer of gray matter under the cortex of the large hemispheres. Scientists knew that the processing of stress reactions depends on the connection between the cortical and subcortical regions of the brain, so with the help of high-precision tomography, they decided to track and create a map of cellular activity during periods of stress.
In mouse models, it was shown that of the 22 brain regions analyzed, the claustrum turned out to be a key region that changed in two states — stress and calm. "Mapping brain activation serves as a reliable biomarker of the effects of acute stress," the authors said.
In further experiments, it turned out that increasing the activity of cells in the claustrum increased the anxious behavior of animals, and suppression, on the contrary, made them resistant to the effects of chronic stress.
Article by Niu et al. Claustrum mediates bidirectional and reversible control of stress-induced anxiety responses published in the journal Science Advances
"Inactivation of stress—sensitive neurons of the claustrum can become a preventive measure for depression and a tool to increase resistance to emotional stress," said the author of the work Hitoshi Hashimoto. In addition to developing therapeutic strategies, scientists also plan to study the characteristics of these cells in order to better understand the causes of various mental disorders.
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