AUTHOR=Jacinto Luis R. , Cerqueira João J. , Sousa Nuno TITLE=Patterns of Theta Activity in Limbic Anxiety Circuit Preceding Exploratory Behavior in Approach-Avoidance Conflict JOURNAL=Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience VOLUME=10 YEAR=2016 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/behavioral-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00171 DOI=10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00171 ISSN=1662-5153 ABSTRACT=

Theta oscillations within the hippocampus-amygdala-medial prefrontal cortex (HPC-AMY-mPFC) circuit have been consistently implicated in the regulation of anxiety behaviors, including risk-assessment. To study if theta activity during risk-assessment was correlated with exploratory behavior in an approach/avoidance paradigm we recorded simultaneous local field potentials from this circuit in rats exploring the elevated-plus maze (EPM). Opposing patterns of power variations in the ventral hippocampus (vHPC), basolateral amygdala (BLA), and prelimbic (PrL) mPFC, but not in the dorsal hippocampus (dHPC), during exploratory risk-assessment of the open arms preceded further exploration of the open arms or retreat back to the safer closed arms. The same patterns of theta power variations in the HPC-BLA-mPFC(PrL) circuit were also displayed by animals submitted to chronic unpredictable stress protocol known to induce an anxious state. Diverging patterns of vHPC-mPFC(PrL) theta coherence were also significantly correlated with forthcoming approach or avoidance behavior in the conflict situation in both controls and stressed animals; interestingly, vHPC-BLA, and BLA-mPFC(PrL) theta coherence correlated with future behavior only in stressed animals, underlying the pivotal role of the amygdala on the stress response.