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

GONZALEZ SANABRIA J; ZOLD CL; BELFORTE JE

Congreso; Reunion Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias (SAN); 2019

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias (SAN)

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in various forms of cognition that depend on contextualinformation to guide goal directed behaviors. To do so, the mPFC provides a global representation of the spatialcontext, incorporating emotional elements to form a complex contextual representation. This representationcan be dynamically rearranged depending on cognitive loads and behavioral demands. Altered mPFC functionhas 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 contextualrepresentations and how these representations are altered in SZ. Here, we recorded mPFC neurons activity in avalidated SZ-mouse model (NMDA receptors ablated in corticolimbic PV+ interneurons, KO) and control micewhile performing exploratory tasks under different degrees of cognitive and emotional load. We observeddifferences between control and KO regarding their contextual representation (including firing rate and numberof engaged units) while analyzing activity of putative pyramidal mPFC neurons. The differences between controland KO depend on the task?s cognitive load and are exacerbated when salient social stimuli are incorporatedinto the environment. These findings can help us understand how the mPFC integrates relevant contextualinformation and regulates exploratory behaviors in normal and pathological conditions.