The cellular basis of depressive disorders is poorly understood1. Recent studies in monkeys indicate that neurons in the lateral habenula (LHb), a nucleus that mediates communication between forebrain and midbrain structures, can increase their activity when an animal fails to receive an expected positive reward or receives a stimulus that predicts aversive conditions (i.e. disappointment or anticipation of a negative outcome)2, 3, 4. LHb neurons project to and modulate dopamine-rich regions such as the ventral-tegmental area (VTA)2, 5 that control reward-seeking behavior6 and participate in depressive disorders7. Here we show in two learned helplessness models of depression that excitatory synapses onto LHb neurons projecting to the VTA are potentiated. Synaptic potentiation correlates with an animal’s helplessness behavior and is due to an enhanced presynaptic release probability. Depleting transmitter release by repeated electrical stimulation of LHb afferents, using a protocol that can be effective on depressed patients8, 9, dramatically suppresses synaptic drive onto VTA-projecting LHb neurons in brain slices and can significantly reduce learned helplessness behavior in rats. Our results indicate that increased presynaptic action onto LHb neurons contributes to the rodent learned helplessness model of depression.

In order to develop a model for a depression-like syndrome in mice, we subjected male C57BL/6 mice to a 4-week-long chronic stress procedure, consisting of rat exposure, restraint stress, and tail suspension. This protocol resulted in a strong decrease in sucrose preference, a putative indicator of anhedonia in rodents. Interestingly, predisposition for stress-induced anhedonia was indicated by submissive behavior in a resident-intruder test. In contrast, most mice with nonsubmissive behavior did not develop a decrease in sucrose preference and were regarded as nonanhedonic. These animals were used as an internal control for stress-induced behavioral features not associated with the anhedonic state, since they were exposed to the same stressors as the anhedonic mice. Using a battery of behavioral tests after termination of the stress procedure, we found that anhedonia, but not chronic stress per se, is associated with key analogues of depressive symptoms, such as increased floating during forced swimming and decreased exploration of novelty. On the other hand, increased anxiety, altered locomotor activity, and loss of body weight were consequences of chronic stress, which occurred independently from anhedonia. Thus, behavioral correlates of stress-induced anhedonia and of chronic stress alone can be separated in the present model.

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