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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 4, 2025

Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses
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A distinct cortical code for socially learned threat.

Shana E Silverstein1, Ruairi O'Sullivan2, Olena Bukalo2

  • 1Laboratory of Behavioral and Genomic Neuroscience, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA. Shana.Silverstein@nih.gov.

Nature
|February 7, 2024
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Observational fear learning (OFL) in mice requires the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). The dmPFC uniquely codes for learned fear from others and controls behavioral responses to threats.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Behavioral Science
  • Social Learning

Background:

  • Animals learn about danger by observing others.
  • Observational fear learning (OFL) mechanisms are poorly understood.
  • The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) is involved in social information processing and threat cue disambiguation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Investigate the neural mechanisms of OFL.
  • Determine the role of the dmPFC in OFL.
  • Understand how the dmPFC generates threat-specific behavioral responses after social observation.

Main Methods:

  • Cellular-resolution microendoscopic calcium imaging in mice.
  • Neuronal circuit mapping.
  • Electrophysiological recordings and optogenetics.

Main Results:

  • The dmPFC is recruited and required for OFL in mice.
  • dmPFC neurons distinctly code for observational fear compared to direct experience.
  • dmPFC activity predicts behavioral state switches (freezing/moving) during threat.
  • dmPFC projections to the PAG constrain freezing behavior.
  • Amygdalar and hippocampal inputs to dmPFC modulate freezing.

Conclusions:

  • The dmPFC computes a distinct neural code for observational fear.
  • dmPFC coordinates long-range circuits to select behavioral responses to observed threats.
  • This study elucidates the neural basis of social threat learning.