Whole-Brain Mapping of Monosynaptic Afferent Inputs to Cortical CRH Neurons

• Main Authors: Shouhua Zhang, Fei Lv, Yuan Yuan, Chengyu Fan, Jiang Li, Wenzhi Sun, Ji Hu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2019-06-01
• Series: Frontiers in Neuroscience
• Subjects: corticotropin-releasing hormone; the anterior cingulate cortex; whole-brain mapping; monosynaptic inputs; rabies virus
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnins.2019.00565/full

Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) is a critical neuropeptide modulating the mammalian stress response. It is involved in many functional activities within various brain regions, among which there is a subset of CRH neurons occupying a considerable proportion of the cortical GABAergic interneurons. Here, we utilized rabies virus-based monosynaptic retrograde tracing system to map the whole-brain afferent presynaptic partners of the CRH neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). We find that the ACC CRH neurons integrate information from the cortex, thalamus, hippocampal formation, amygdala, and also several other midbrain and hindbrain nuclei. Furthermore, our results reveal that ACC CRH neurons receive direct inputs from two neuromodulatory systems, the basal forebrain cholinergic neurons and raphe serotoninergic neurons. These findings together expand our knowledge about the connectivity of the cortical GABAergic neurons and also provide a basis for further investigation of the circuit function of cortical CRH neurons.