Medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) encoding of contextual information in a mice model of schizophrenia.

CAMILA L. ZOLD; GONZALEZ SANABRIA JAVIER; BELFORTE JUAN E

Congreso; XXXIV Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias; 2019

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in various forms of cognition that depend on contextual information to guide goal directed behaviors. To do so, the mPFC provides a global representation of the spatial context, incorporating emotional elements to form a complex contextual representation. This representation can be dynamically rearranged depending on cognitive loads and behavioral demands. Altered mPFC function have been associated to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia (SZ) and may be subjacent to the profound cognitive impairments displayed by these patients. Little is known about how mPFC encodes contextual representations and how this representations can be altered in SZ. Here, we recorded mPFC neurons activity in validated SZ-mouse model (NMDA receptors ablated in corticolimbic PV+ interneurons, KO) and control mice while performing exploratory tasks under different degrees of cognitive and emotional load. We observed differences between control and KO regarding their contextual representation (including firing rate and number of engaged units) while analyzing activity of putative pyramidal mPFC neurons. The differences between control and KO depend on the cognitive load of the task and are exacerbated when salient social stimuli are incorporated into the environment.These findings can help us understand how the mPFC integrates relevant contextual information and regulates exploratory behaviors in normal and pathological conditions.