Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

STRESS

Stressing the other paraventricular nucleus

Nature Neuroscience volume 21, pages 901–902 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Often overlooked, the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus is a stress-sensitive region in the midline thalamus essential for stress-induced adaptations. Using cutting edge in vivo monitoring approaches, Beas, Wright et al. identify a circuit by which stress disinhibits the midline thalamus through dopaminergic modulation arising from the locus coeruleus.

You’ve probably heard about the paraventricular nucleus and how critical this brain region is for responding to stress. The problem is, you’re probably thinking about the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN), not the stress-sensitive paraventricular nucleus located in the thalamus. Despite evidence that the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) is essential for psychophysical adaptations to chronic stress, such as regulation of the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis, it has received much less attention than the PVN, and little is known about how stress impinges on the PVT and its associated circuitry1. In this issue of Nature Neuroscience, Beas, Wright et al. delineate a mechanism by which stress recruits a novel dopaminergic locus coeruleus (LC)-to-PVT pathway that is essential for stress responsivity2.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Fig. 1: Translation of stress to motivation circuitry.

References

  1. Hsu, D. T., Kirouac, G. J., Zubieta, J.-K. & Bhatnagar, S. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 8, 73 (2014).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Beas, B.S. et al. Nat. Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0167-4 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Clark, A.M. et al. eNeuro https://doi.org/10.1523/eneuro.0227-17.2017 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Grimley, J. S. et al. J. Neurosci. 33, 16297–16309 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Li, S., Shi, Y. & Kirouac, G. J. Front. Neuroanat. 8, 136 (2014).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Kempadoo, K. A., Mosharov, E. V., Choi, S. J., Sulzer, D. & Kandel, E. R. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, 14835–14840 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Takeuchi, T. et al. Nature 537, 357–362 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Haight, J. L. & Flagel, S. B. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 8, 79 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Francis, T. C. et al. Biol. Psychiatry 77, 212–222 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Muir, J. et al. Neuropsychopharmacology 43, 255–263 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Jaferi, A. & Bhatnagar, S. Endocrinology 147, 4917–4930 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Kirouac, G. J. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 56, 315–329 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Zhu, Y., Wienecke, C. F. R., Nachtrab, G. & Chen, X. Nature 530, 219–222 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Neumann, P. A. et al. Neuropsychopharmacology 41, 2399–2410 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Do-Monte, F. H., Minier-Toribio, A., Quiñones-Laracuente, K., Medina-Colón, E. M. & Quirk, G. J. Neuron 94, 388–400.e4 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Kurt M. Fraser & Patricia H. Janak

  2. The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Patricia H. Janak

  3. Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Patricia H. Janak

Authors
  1. Kurt M. Fraser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Patricia H. Janak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Kurt M. Fraser or Patricia H. Janak.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Fraser, K.M., Janak, P.H. Stressing the other paraventricular nucleus. Nat Neurosci 21, 901–902 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0178-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0178-1

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing