Poster #029
Zona Incerta Inhibition Boosts vlPAG Activation in Extinction Recall
Mentors: Hailey Adney; PI: Brian Dias, PhD
Among hallmarks of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder are deficits in extinction learning–or learning a cue previously indicating danger no longer does. We aim to understand how activity in fear-related brain regions relates to this deficit. Previous research found inhibiting zona incerta (ZI) projections, primarily GABAergic, to the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG) enhanced extinction recall (ER). With research showing neurons active at extinction training (ET) are required for ER, we are curious how inhibiting ZI neurons active at ET exclusively during ER may influence vlPAG activity. Using molecular approaches called Targeted Recombination in Active Populations and Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs, we labeled ZI neurons active during ET and inhibited them at ER. vlPAG neurons active during ER were labeled using immunohistochemistry. We predict inhibiting ZI neurons will disinhibit the vlPAG. If such is observed, we would demonstrate impairing fear-related activity from ET at ER causes downstream activity alterations.