How light therapy ameliorates depression is not well understood. Here, tracing techniques revealed that the circuit responsible for this effect involves M4-type retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) that project via a disynaptic circuit onto GABAergic neurons in the thalamic ventral lateral geniculate nucleus and intergeniculate leaflet (vLGN/IGL). Projections of these neurons in turn inhibit excitatory neurons of the lateral habenula (LHb). Depressive-like behaviours evoked by chronic exposure to aversive stimuli or social defeat stress were attenuated following activation of this RGC–vLGN/IGL–LHb pathway or by visual light.
References
Original article
Huang, L. et al. A visual circuit related to habenula underlies the antidepressive effects of light therapy. Neuron https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2019.01.037 (2019)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lewis, S. Lightening depression. Nat Rev Neurosci 20, 251 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-019-0155-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-019-0155-z