Ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine (DA) neurons in the brain’s reward circuit play a crucial role in mediating stress responses1–4 including determining susceptibility vs. resilience to social stress-induced behavioural abnormalities5. VTA DA neurons exhibit two in vivo patterns of firing: low frequency tonic firing and high frequency phasic firing6–8. Phasic firing of the neurons, which is well known to encode reward signals6,7,9, is upregulated by repeated social defeat stress, a highly validated mouse model of depression5,8,10–13. Surprisingly, this pathophysiological effect is seen in susceptible mice only, with no change in firing rate apparent in resilient individuals5,8. However, direct evidence linking—in real-time—DA neuron phasic firing in promoting the susceptible (depression-like) phenotype is lacking. Here, we took advantage of the temporal precision and cell type- and projection pathway-specificity of optogenetics to demonstrate that enhanced phasic firing of these neurons mediates susceptibility to social defeat stress in freely behaving mice. We show that optogenetic induction of phasic, but not tonic, firing, in VTA DA neurons of mice undergoing a subthreshold social defeat paradigm rapidly induced a susceptible phenotype as measured by social avoidance and decreased sucrose preference. Optogenetic phasic stimulation of these neurons also quickly induced a susceptible phenotype in previously resilient mice that had been subjected to repeated social defeat stress. Furthermore, we show differences in projection pathway-specificity in promoting stress susceptibility: phasic activation of VTA neurons projecting to the nucleus accumbens (NAc), but not to the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), induced susceptibility to social defeat stress. Conversely, optogenetic inhibition of the VTA-NAc projection induced resilience, while inhibition of the VTA-mPFC projection promoted susceptibility. Overall, these studies reveal novel firing pattern- and neural circuit-specific mechanisms of depression.

Currently, surgical treatments for peripheral nerve injury are less than satisfactory. The gold standard of treatment for peripheral nerve gaps >5 mm is the autologous nerve graft; however, this treatment is associated with a variety of clinical complications, such as donor site morbidity, limited availability, nerve site mismatch, and the formation of neuromas. Despite many recent advances in the field, clinical studies implementing the use of artificial nerve guides have yielded results that are yet to surpass those of autografts. Thus, the development of a nerve guidance conduit, which could match the effectiveness of the autologous nerve graft, would be beneficial to the field of peripheral nerve surgery. Design strategies to improve surgical outcomes have included the development of biopolymers and synthetic polymers as primary scaffolds with tailored mechanical and physical properties, luminal "fillers" such as laminin and fibronectin as secondary internal scaffolds, surface micropatterning, stem cell inclusion, and controlled release of neurotrophic factors. The current article highlights approaches to peripheral nerve repair through a channel or conduit, implementing chemical and physical growth and guidance cues to direct that repair process.

Targeted, temporally regulated neural modulation is invaluable in determining the physiological roles of specific neural populations or circuits. Here we describe a system for non-invasive, temporal activation or inhibition of neuronal activity in vivo and its use to study central nervous system control of glucose homeostasis and feeding in mice. We are able to induce neuronal activation remotely using radio waves or magnetic fields via Cre-dependent expression of a GFP-tagged ferritin fusion protein tethered to the cation-conducting transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) by a camelid anti-GFP antibody (anti-GFP–TRPV1)1. Neuronal inhibition via the same stimuli is achieved by mutating the TRPV1 pore, rendering the channel chloride-permeable. These constructs were targeted to glucose-sensing neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamus in glucokinase–Cre mice, which express Cre in glucose-sensing neurons2. Acute activation of glucose-sensing neurons in this region increases plasma glucose and glucagon, lowers insulin levels and stimulates feeding, while inhibition reduces blood glucose, raises insulin levels and suppresses feeding. These results suggest that pancreatic hormones function as an effector mechanism of central nervous system circuits controlling blood glucose and behaviour. The method we employ obviates the need for permanent implants and could potentially be applied to study other neural processes or used to regulate other, even dispersed, cell types.

Social behaviors are crucial to all mammals. Although the prelimbic cortex (PL, part of medial prefrontal cortex) has been implicated in social behavior, it is not clear which neurons are relevant, nor how they contribute. We found that PL contains anatomically and molecularly distinct subpopulations that target 3 downstream regions that have been implicated in social behavior: the nucleus accumbens (NAc), amygdala, and ventral tegmental area. Activation of NAc-projecting PL neurons (PL-NAc), but not the other subpopulations, decreased preference for a social target. To determine what information PL-NAc neurons convey, we recorded selectively from them, and found that individual neurons were active during social investigation, but only in specific spatial locations. Spatially-specific manipulation of these neurons bidirectionally regulated the formation of a social-spatial association. Thus, the unexpected combination of social and spatial information within the PL-NAc may contribute to social behavior by supporting social-spatial learning.

SUMMARY The complexity and cellular heterogeneity of neural circuitry presents a major challenge to understanding the role of discrete neural populations in controlling behavior. While neuroanatomical methods enable high-resolution mapping of neural circuitry, these approaches do not allow systematic molecular profiling of neurons based on their connectivity. We report the development of an approach for molecularly profiling projective neurons. We show that ribosomes can be tagged with a camelid nanobody raised against GFP and that this system can be engineered to selectively capture translating mRNAs from neurons retrogradely labeled with GFP. Using this system we profiled neurons projecting to the nucleus accumbens. We then used an AAV to selectively profile midbrain dopamine neurons projecting to the nucleus accumbens. By comparing the captured mRNAs from each experiment, we identified a number of markers specific to VTA dopaminergic projection neurons. The current method provides a means for profiling neurons based on their projections.