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The prefrontal cortex is a cortical area located in the anterior frontal lobe, including several subdivisions (e.g. ventromedial, dorsolateral, orbitofrontal cortices). The prefrontal cortex functions in cognitive control (e.g. planning, attention, problem-solving, error-monitoring, decision-making, social cognition, and working memory).
Using stereotactic electroencephalography, the authors identified differential amygdala activation in response to emotional faces in participants with treatment-resistant depression compared with non-depressed participants with epilepsy, suggesting possible deep brain stimulation targets.
Cross talk between periphery and the central nervous system may contribute to stress associated behaviours. Here the authors identified liver-derived lipocalin 2 as a peripheral factor that elicits anxiety-like behaviours via modulating medial prefrontal neural activity.
Dopamine may help strengthen fear-inhibitory extinction memories through influences on the prefrontal cortex. Here, the authors replicate their previous finding that prefrontal reactivations are predictive of extinction memory retrieval but do not replicate the enhancing effects of L-DOPA.
One of two anatomically and functionally characterized subpopulations of neurons in the mouse paraventricular thalamus forms a thalamo-corticothalamic loop with the infralimbic cortex that regulates arousal.
Certain lasting antidepressant effects of ketamine in a mouse model of depression depend on the restoration of dendritic spines in the prefrontal cortex.
Dopamine released in the rodent prefrontal cortex increases the signal-to-noise ratio of responses to aversive stimuli that are transmitted to the periaqueductal grey.
