The immediate-early genes, including c-fos, have been proposed to be involved in learning and memory. In this report, we examine stress-induced Fos-like immunoreactivity (Fos-li) in subregions of the prefrontal cortex during a conditioned fear paradigm. During the acquisition phase, the rats were conditioned to fear a formerly neutral tone by pairing the tone with a mild footshock. The rats wer...

Deficits in decision-making is a hallmark of several neuropsychiatric pathologies but is also observed in some healthy individuals that could be at risk to develop these pathologies. Poor decision-making can be revealed experimentally in humans using the Iowa gambling task, through the inability to select options that ensure long term gains over larger immediate gratification. We devised an ana...

Organization of locomotor behavior is altered in mice knockout for the β2 subunit of the nicotinic receptor-β2-/- mice-during novelty exploration. We investigated the neuronal basis of this alteration by measuring activation of the immediate early gene c-fos in the brains of wild-type (WT) and β2-/- mice after exploration of a novel or a familiar environment. Results show 1) no constitutive dif...

Pyramidal neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) critically contribute to cocaine-seeking behavior in humans and rodents. Activity of these neurons is significantly modulated by GABAergic, parvalbumin-containing, fast-spiking interneurons, the majority of which are enveloped by specialized structures of extracellular matrix called perineuronal nets (PNNs), which are integral to the main...

The extinction of delay fear conditioning relies on a neural circuit that has received much attention and is relatively well defined. Whether this established circuit also supports the extinction of more complex associations, however, is unclear. Trace fear conditioning is a better model of complex relational learning, yet the circuit that supports extinction of this memory has received very li...

OBJECTIVE In the present study, we employ mathematical modeling (partial least squares regression, PLSR) to elucidate the functional connectivity signatures of discrete brain regions in order to identify the functional networks subserving PCP-induced disruption of distinct cognitive functions and their restoration by the procognitive drug modafinil. METHODS We examine the functional connectiv...