Researchers at Tohoku University and the University of Tokyo have discovered patterns of electrical waves in the brain related to the social behavior of mice. They also observed that mice showing signs of stress, depression, or autism did not have these brain waves.
The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the amygdala regions of the brain regulate our emotion and undergo pathological changes when we experience psychiatric illnesses. However, the detailed neural processes behind this are still unclear.
Takuya Sasaki, of Tohoku University’s Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, led a collaborative team that recorded brain electrical signals, called brain electrical waves, in the mPFC and amygdala areas of mice. They found that certain brain waves underwent pronounced variations when mice interacted socially with each other. Specifically, brain waves in the theta (4-7 Hz) and gamma (30-60 Hz) frequency bands decreased and increased, respectively, during socialization.
When the same tests were applied to mice that showed poor social skills or symptoms of depression and autism, brain waves were not present. In particular, the artificial replication of brain waves related to social behavior using an optical and genetic manipulation technique in these pathological mouse models restored their ability to interact socially.
This finding provides a unified understanding of the brain activity underlying social behavior and its deficits in disease. “
Takuya Sasaki, Postgraduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University
Looking to the future, Sasaki is eager to identify the basic mechanisms of neuronal dynamics in these brain waves and evaluate the involvement of other brain regions in social behavior. Taken together, it is investigating whether the same brain mechanisms work in humans for clinical applications.
Source:
Magazine reference:
Kuga, N., et al. (2022) Prefrontal-amygdala oscillations related to social behavior in mice. eLife. doi.org/10.7554/eLife.78428.