Forums | Biological Science | 生物科学

10 September 2024, 9:43 AM

Title: Deep Brain Stimulation: From Antidepressant to Memory Enhancement

Abstract: Depression and dementia pose some of the biggest threats to mental health worldwide, yet current available treatments face issues of therapeutic efficacy and high rates of treatment failure. To tackle these key research challenges, we applied deep brain stimulation (DBS) to alleviate depressive-like behaviors and memory impairment in animal models. We demonstrated that DBS of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) induced the most profound anxiolytic and antidepressant-like responses through a brain circuit involving the serotoninergic and dopaminergic mechanisms in the midbrain. We further investigated the effects of mPFC DBS on fear memories for the treatment of anxiety disorders. We found that mPFC DBS during the memory consolidation stage was a critical time point for disrupting fear memory involving hippocampal dopamine 2 receptors and specific neurotransmission. Of particular interest, we conducted the first study to show that mPFC DBS can improve learning and memory functions through a hippocampal neurogenesis mechanism, with distinct gene expression patterns involving both neurogenesis and non-neurogenesis mechanisms. Overall, our findings suggest that mPFC DBS could serve as a novel effective treatment targeting depression and dementia-related disorders.

Time: 11 Sep 2024 12pm

Location: SA236

Tencent Meeting Link: https://meeting.tencent.com/dm/MPj600eWRgkh

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