Interference with the operation of the reward and punishment circuit is the basis of the body's main mood disorders, including depression, which usually occurs after early life stress / stress (ELA). However, how ELA persistently affects the body's reward and punishment circuit function is unknown to researchers.recently, Published in a study entitled "Stress-induced plasticity of a CRH / GABA projection disrupts reward behaviors in mice" in the international journal Nature Communications, Scientists from institutions such as the University of California, Irvine have discovered a new type of brain connection, It may help explain how the body's early life stress and adversity induce disruption or interference in the brain's reward and punishment circuits, This may provide a new therapeutic target for the treatment of human mental diseases; Impaired function of the brain reward and punishment circuitry is thought to underlie the occurrence of multiple major diseases, Such as depression, substance abuse, and excessive risk-taking.
In this study, the researchers describe how the adversity that individuals encounter in their childhood triggers cellular changes in their brain circuits. The Investigator Tallie Z. We all know that stress in the early years may affect the brain, but so far, we don't know how the body works, Dr. Baram said. In this paper, we focus on identifying the potential stress sensitive brain circuit, we found a new pathway in the brain reward and punishment circuit, it may express a special molecule called adrenaline releasing hormone (corticotropin-releasing hormone), to control the body's response to stress, the researchers found that the body's adverse experiences or promote the brain pathways to excessive activation.
Changes in the pathway interrupt rewards and punishments, reducing pleasure and motivation for fun, food and sexual cues; in humans, behavioral changes such as anhedonia are often associated with mood disorders in the body; and importantly, the researchers have found that when modern technology is used to silence the pathway, we resume the normal rewards and punishments in the brain. In the article, the researchers mapped all the connections between CRH and the nucleus accumbens (nucleus accumbens), the key center of pleasure and body power in the brain, and a previously unknown projection site from the basolateral nucleus (basolateral amygdala, BLA); in addition to CRH, projection fibers can co-express γ -aminobutyric acid; when this new pathway is stimulated, it suppresses various types of reward and punishment behaviors in male mice.
This involved two groups of male and female mice, one exposed to adverse conditions early in life, living for a week in a cage with limited bedding and nesting material, while the other group was housed in a typical cage. When mice become adults, male mice experiencing early adversity are less interested in sweet or sexual cues than normally bred mice; instead, magnetic mice experience sweet, but have no effect on female mice. Researchers Baram said our findings may provide groundbreaking insights and clues into early-life adversity, especially the development of the brain based on many mood disorders; the researchers discovered a previously unknown circuit function of the basolateral almond-nucleus accumbens brain pathway, which may deepen scientists' understanding of this complex mechanism and identify an important new therapeutic target.
Further research is needed by later-stage researchers to increase the understanding of the different and sex-specific effects of adversity on body behavior in early life. In conclusion, the results of this paper show that researchers have found a projection effect of stress sensitivity, reward and punishment inhibition with unique molecular characteristics, which may provide certain intervention targets and measures for later scientists to study disabling mental diseases.
