Poster #028
Zona Incerta Inhibition Alters Nucleus Reuniens Extinction Recall Activity
Mentors: Hailey Adney; PI: Brian Dias, PhD
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is characterized by impairments in extinction recall (ER)—or recalling learning a cue, once appropriately evoking fear, is no longer aversive. We seek to understand how such impairments relate to activity in fear-associated brain regions. Prior research found stimulating nucleus reuniens (RE) projecting zona incerta (ZI) GABAergic neurons enhanced ER. Considering evidence for neurons active at extinction training (ET) being required for ER, we investigated the relationship between ZI ET activity and ER and assessed RE impacts. We hypothesized inhibition of ZI neurons active at ET during ER would disinhibit RE neurons. Subsequently, we injected Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs into Targeted Recombination in Active Populations mice, labeling ZI neurons active during ET and inhibiting them at recall. Following ER, immunohistochemistry labeled RE activity. If our hypothesis is confirmed, we would demonstrate ZI activity manipulation in the context of ET and ER has downstream consequences.