Increased light exposure at night can exacerbate depressive symptoms. Here, increased light exposure at night in mice increased depressive-like symptoms. The authors mapped a retina-to-dorsal perihabenular nucleus (dpHb)-to-nucleus accumbens (NAcc) pathway that was more excitable at night than during the day and found that the resulting increase in activation of the NAcc could underlie the depressive-like behaviours. These findings could have implications for the effects of artificial light and mental health.
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An, K. et al. A circadian rhythm-gated subcortical pathway for nighttime-light-induced depressive-like behaviors in mice. Nat Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-020-0640-8 (2020)
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Lewis, S. Light darkens mood. Nat Rev Neurosci 21, 399 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0332-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0332-0
