Behavioural Brain Research最新文献

{"title":"Acoustic features of and behavioral responses to emotionally intense mouse vocalizations","authors":"Zahra Ghasemahmad ,&nbsp;Karthic Drishna Perumal ,&nbsp;Bhavya Sharma ,&nbsp;Rishita Panditi ,&nbsp;Jeffrey James Wenstrup","doi":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115824","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115824","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Social vocalizations contain cues that reflect the motivational state of vocalizing animals. Once perceived, these cues affect the internal state and behavioral responses of listening animals. Using CBA/CAJ mice, this study examined acoustic cues that signal intensity in male-female interactions, then compared behavioral responses to intense mating vocal sequences with those from another intense behavioral context, restraint. Experiment I examined behaviors and vocalizations associated with male-female social interactions. Based on several behaviors, we distinguished more general, courtship-type interactions from mating interactions involving mounting or attempted mounting behaviors. We then compared vocalizations between courtship and mating. The increase in behavioral intensity from courtship to mating was associated with altered syllable composition, more harmonic structure, lower minimum frequency, longer duration, reduced inter-syllable interval, and increased sound intensity. Based on these features, we constructed highly salient playback stimuli associated with mating. In Experiment II, we compared behavioral responses to playback of these mating sequences with responses to playback of aversive vocal sequences produced by restrained mice. Subjects were males and estrus females. We observed a range of behavioral responses. Some (e.g., Attending and Stretch-Attend) showed similar responses across playback type and sex, while others were context dependent (e.g., Flinching, Locomotion). Still other behaviors showed either an effect of sex (e.g., Self-Grooming, Still-and-Alert) or an interaction between playback type and sex (Escape). These results demonstrate both state-dependent features of mouse vocalizations and their effectiveness in evoking a range of behavioral responses, independent of contextual cues provided by other sensory stimuli or behavioral interactions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8823,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Brain Research","volume":"496 ","pages":"Article 115824"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145091193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Optic flow modulates electrocortical activity during steady-state treadmill walking","authors":"Marco A. Bühler ,&nbsp;Samir Sangani ,&nbsp;Joyce Fung ,&nbsp;Anouk Lamontagne","doi":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115828","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115828","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Locomotion in real-life environments involves gathering visual information about the environment and regulating one’s movements accordingly. Optic flow is a central visual cue that pedestrians use to control locomotor speed and direction. Neuroimaging studies examined cortical locomotor control primarily during treadmill walking without optic flow. In the present study, electroencephalography (EEG) data were recorded during a virtual reality treadmill walking task to obtain insights into the neural mechanisms involved in optic flow processing. Twenty-four healthy young participants performed a virtual reality task that involved periods of standing and walking with or without optic flow. Electrocortical activity data were recorded using a 64-channel EEG system and independent component analysis parsed out individual data into maximally independent components. Components from all participants were then grouped and to analyze task-relevant cortical activity, we examined theta, alpha, and beta power across the sensorimotor, parietal, and parieto-occipital regions. Results revealed significant electrocortical modulations across all regions examined. In the theta frequency band, differences between conditions occurred exclusively in the parieto-occipital region, where an increase in power was observed when walking with optic flow relative to walking without optic flow or standing. Modulations in the alpha frequency band occurred in all regions, with a decrease in sensorimotor and parietal power in both walking conditions relative to standing and a decrease in parieto-occipital power exclusively when walking with optic flow. These findings enhance our understanding of the cortical processes involved in locomotor control and provide foundational knowledge to contextualize deficits following neurological conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8823,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Brain Research","volume":"496 ","pages":"Article 115828"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145090885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pharmacological profiling of Thiamet-G inhibitor in MPTP induced Parkinson’s disease: Evidence from behavioral, biochemical, and histological studies","authors":"Shiwali Sharma ,&nbsp;Shareen Singh ,&nbsp;Veerta Sharma ,&nbsp;Sukriti Vishwas ,&nbsp;Thakur Gurjeet Singh","doi":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115840","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115840","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease marked by the loss of dopaminergic neurons, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and neuroinflammation. Growing evidence suggests that the dysregulation of O-GlcNAcylation, a dynamic post-translational modification regulated by O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) and O-GlcNAcase (OGA), plays a role in the pathogenesis of PD. Disrupted O-GlcNAcylation leads to mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and abnormal inflammatory signaling, which in turn accelerates the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. This research examined the neuroprotective effects of Thiamet-G (10 and 20 mg/kg, i.p.), a selective inhibitor of OGA, in a mouse model of PD induced by 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP). The administration of MPTP resulted in significant motor deficits, heightened oxidative stress, and increased levels of inflammatory mediators, alongside neuronal damage in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Treatment with Thiamet-G significantly (p &lt; 0.0001) enhanced locomotor activity, motor coordination, and grip strength when compared to disease controls. Biochemical assessments indicated a decrease in lipid peroxidation and a restoration of antioxidant enzymes (GSH, CAT, SOD). ELISA analysis revealed a significant reduction in pro-inflammatory mediators (TNF-α, IL-1β, NF-κB) and a notable (p &lt; 0.0001) increase in neuronal survival proteins MEF2D and SRPK3, along with a decrease in OGA expression, confirming improved O-GlcNAcylation. Histopathological evaluations supported these results, showing less neuronal degeneration, reduced astrocytic proliferation, and increased neuronal density in the groups treated with Thiamet-G. Thus, the research indicates that Thiamet-G provides neuroprotection in Parkinson's disease by influencing SRPK3 and MEF2D, while also preventing motor dysfunction, oxidative stress, and neuroinflammation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8823,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Brain Research","volume":"496 ","pages":"Article 115840"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145090818","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Acute systemic immune challenge induces cognitive impairments and anhedonia through interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3 in adult male mice","authors":"Wenjun Zhu ,&nbsp;Akira Sobue ,&nbsp;Rinako Tanaka ,&nbsp;Kazuhiro Hada ,&nbsp;Daisuke Ibi ,&nbsp;Yue Liu ,&nbsp;Tetsuo Matsuzaki ,&nbsp;Taku Nagai ,&nbsp;Toshitaka Nabeshima ,&nbsp;Kozo Kaibuchi ,&nbsp;Norio Ozaki ,&nbsp;Hiroyuki Mizoguchi ,&nbsp;Hiroaki Ikesue ,&nbsp;Kiyofumi Yamada","doi":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115832","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115832","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Systemic immune challenge can also cause neuropsychiatric abnormalities. Interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3 (IFITM3) plays a crucial role in cellular immune defense. Previously, we have demonstrated that IFITM3 affects neurodevelopment during the early developmental stage in mice, acting through innate immune activation. However, the pathophysiological significance of IFITM3 in immune system activation in adulthood remains unclear. To address this issue, we aimed to analyze the expression level of IFITM3 in the brain and the behavioral abnormalities in polyriboinosinic-polyribocytidylic acid (polyI:C)-treated adult male C57/BL6J wild-type (WT) and <em>Ifitm3</em>^-/- mice. The expression levels of <em>Ifitm3</em> mRNA and protein were significantly upregulated in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), striatum, and hippocampus 24 h after polyI:C treatment in WT mice compared to saline-treated control mice. Furthermore, behavioral experiments revealed that polyI:C treatment induced cognitive dysfunction and anhedonia in WT mice, whereas <em>Ifitm3</em>^<em>-/-</em> mice were resistant to these disorders. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that in adult mice, immune activation following polyI:C treatment may induce cognitive dysfunction and anhedonia through IFITM3 upregulation in the brain. These results suggest that IFITM3 is an attractive therapeutic target for neuropsychiatric dysfunction following immune activation in adulthood.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8823,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Brain Research","volume":"496 ","pages":"Article 115832"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145090846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Enhanced epileptic seizure detection using CNNs with convolutional block attention and short-term memory networks","authors":"Tao Zhang ,&nbsp;Jichi Chen ,&nbsp;Kemal Polat","doi":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115831","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115831","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Analyzing the electroencephalography (EEG) signals of epilepsy patients can monitor the condition, detect and intervene in epileptic seizures in time. To enhance the lives of these patients, it is necessary to develop accurate methods to detect epileptic seizures. This study proposes a novel epileptic seizure detection method based on deep learning and attention mechanisms. This proposed method combines two deep learning models, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Long-Short-Term Memory Networks (LSTM), to automatically extract spatial and time series features that characterize epileptic seizures from EEG signals. Then, the convolutional block attention module (CBAM) is introduced to enable the deep learning model to focus on processing key information. Finally, parameter optimization and ablation experiments are performed on the CNN_CBAM_LSTM deep learning model composed of CNN, CBAM and LSTM on the publicly available Bonn University dataset, and the performance of epileptic seizure detection is evaluated. The CNN_CBAM_LSTM achieved an accuracy of 98.80 % in detecting three types of EEG signals from epilepsy patients. This model demonstrated superior performance compared to existing state-of-the-art methods. The CNN_CBAM_LSTM effectively detects epileptic seizures, offering significant improvements in the quality of life for epilepsy patients through early detection and intervention.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8823,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Brain Research","volume":"496 ","pages":"Article 115831"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145079601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The immediate effect of anodal tDCS over the motor cortex on postural control and cortical activation in patients with chronic low back pain: A preliminary study","authors":"Yan Li ,&nbsp;Hao Xie ,&nbsp;Jiahui Peng ,&nbsp;Zhaoqiang Xu ,&nbsp;Ruochen Fu ,&nbsp;Xue Cheng ,&nbsp;Jiajia Yang ,&nbsp;Qiuhua Yu ,&nbsp;Haoyu Xie ,&nbsp;Xueqiang Wang ,&nbsp;Chuhuai Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115827","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115827","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Impaired postural control, attributed to abnormal function of motor-related cortices, has been proven as one of the potential mechanisms of chronic low back pain (CLBP). Based on available evidence, anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the primary motor cortex (M1-tDCS) can significantly enhance cortical activation and improve postural control. However, the neuromechanism underlying the effect of anodal M1-tDCS on patients with CLBP remains unclear.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Twenty-six participants with CLBP were randomly assigned to the active tDCS group or sham group. A 20-minute session of anodal M1-tDCS or sham intervention was applied. Before and after the intervention, postural control performance and cortical activity during unipedal standing were assessed by center of pressure displacement and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), respectively. Regions of interest (ROIs) included bilateral primary motor cortex (M1), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), frontopolar area (FpA), and supplementary motor area (SMA). Functional connectivity (FC) among these ROIs was also analyzed.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Significant interactions (Group × Time) were observed in anterior-posterior (AP) velocity, sway length, left M1 activation, and FC between left M1 and right DLPFC, as well as between the left M1 and bilateral FpA (<em>ps</em>&lt;0.05). <em>Post-hoc</em> comparisons demonstrated that AP velocity and sway length significantly decreased after the anodal M1-tDCS intervention (<em>p</em>_<em>FDR</em>&lt;0.001, effect size (<em>d</em>)= 2.060). Additionally, participants in the active tDCS group exhibited significantly reduced left M1 activation (<em>p</em>_<em>FDR</em>&lt;0.001, <em>d</em>=1.894), FC between the left M1 and right DLPFC (<em>p</em>_<em>FDR</em>=0.008, <em>d</em>=1.420), and FC between the left M1 and bilateral FpA (left: <em>p</em>_<em>FDR</em>=0.006, <em>d</em>=1.461; right: <em>p</em>_<em>FDR</em>=0.027, <em>d</em>=1.227) after the intervention.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>The improvement in postural control of patients with CLBP following anodal M1-tDCS, accompanied by reduced cortical activation and functional connectivity, suggests enhanced neural efficiency (more efficient neural processing) and reduced compensatory demands within sensorimotor networks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8823,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Brain Research","volume":"496 ","pages":"Article 115827"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145079575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Early exposure to male intruders induces precocious activation of fear-related neural circuits in a sex-specific manner in rat pups","authors":"María José Zuluaga ,&nbsp;Daniella Agrati ,&nbsp;Gabriela Bedó ,&nbsp;Annabel Ferreira ,&nbsp;Natalia Uriarte","doi":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115830","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115830","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The early exposure of mother-litter dyads to adult male intruders in the home cage leads to the precocious expression of fear responses in rat pups when confronted with an intruder during the stress-hyporesponsive period (SHRP). As fear-related circuits are still maturing during this period in a sex dependent manner, this study investigated whether this early-life experience promotes the activation of fear-related circuits in 8-day-old female and male pups confronted with an adult male. As expected, pups exposed to male intruders from postnatal days (PND) 1–4 exhibited increased immobility and reduced ultrasonic vocalizations when subsequently tested with an adult male on PND 8, and this response did not differ from that displayed by pups outside the SHRP (PND 14). Fear behavior was accompanied by an increase of c-Fos expression in key areas implicated in fear processing, including the amygdala (medial, cortical, basomedial, basolateral nuclei), paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, and ventromedial hypothalamus in 8- and 14-day old pups. However, neural activation patterns differed between sexes, suggesting sex-specific maturational trajectories influenced by the exposure of the dyad to the male intruder. These findings demonstrate that an early social context that alters the mother’s behavior induces the precocious activation of fear-related circuits in male and female pups, highlighting the sensitivity of emotional neural circuits to maternal and environmental influences during the neonatal period.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8823,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Brain Research","volume":"496 ","pages":"Article 115830"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145079581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The sound of silence: Sex and individual differences in rat ultrasonic vocalisation","authors":"Sophia Marie Quante ,&nbsp;Elena Groneberg ,&nbsp;Sylvia Kaiser ,&nbsp;S. Helene Richter","doi":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115823","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115823","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rats produce a diverse repertoire of ultrasonic vocalisations (USVs) that, despite their inaudibility to the human ear, have been widely studied in behavioural research. Besides alarm calls in the 22-kHz range, research has also focussed on the play-associated 50-kHz range, typically examining overall calling rates in males. However, evidence for sex and individual differences in rat USVs has accumulated in recent years. Building up on this work, we here aimed to further explore sex and individual differences in rats’ vocal response during human-induced play behaviour, a context often used to study rat vocalisation. Specifically, we investigated calling rates across different 50-kHz and 22-kHz call subtypes and additionally analysed the sequence of used call subtypes, offering novel insights into the complexity of rat vocalisation. In line with recent work on rats’ USV emission during play, male rats vocalised more than females. Moreover, calling rates per call subtype showed temporally stable inter-individual differences. Additionally, individual differences were found regarding call subtype sequence, pointing towards the existence of “vocal fingerprints”. Thus, in line with previous knowledge on rat USVs, the present study supports the trend of individual specific research in the field of behavioural biology.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8823,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Brain Research","volume":"496 ","pages":"Article 115823"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145069037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Low-dose ciprofol attenuates motor dysfunction in PD mice by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation","authors":"Yanan Wang ,&nbsp;Ming Li ,&nbsp;Yan Li ,&nbsp;Jiguang Guo ,&nbsp;Xuhua Huo ,&nbsp;Jingui Gao ,&nbsp;Hongjie Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115826","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115826","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the increasing prevalence of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, the surgical demand among PD patients is concurrently expanding. Some anesthetics have been reported to exert protective effects against PD progression, whereas others have not exhibited such effects. Ciprofol, a novel intravenous anesthetic, shares structural similarities with propofol and is considered more suitable for elderly individuals. Nevertheless, its effect on PD progression remains elusive. In the present study, low-dose ciprofol did not induce narcosis, improved motor deficits in PD mice, and attenuated dopaminergic neuronal degeneration. Moreover, ciprofol administered at doses sufficient to cause narcosis did not accelerate PD progression. Low-dose ciprofol inhibited the microglial expression of NLRP3, cl-caspase-1, and the levels of IL-18, IL-1β in the substantia nigra pars compacta and striatum. Furthermore, the NLRP3 agonist nigericin suppressed the anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects of low-dose ciprofol in BV2 and SH-SY5Y cells. Overall, these results indicated that low-dose ciprofol protected dopaminergic neurons and ameliorated motor impairments in MPTP-induced PD mice, potentially by inhibiting microglial NLRP3 inflammasome. These findings support its clinical use and offer valuable insights into the neurobiological mechanisms by which anesthetics modulate PD progression.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8823,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Brain Research","volume":"496 ","pages":"Article 115826"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145069009","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Suppression of miR-146a-5p/SMAD4 signaling pathway ameliorates hippocampal neuronal injury caused by chronic stress","authors":"Ruojing Guo ,&nbsp;Ye Li ,&nbsp;Xiao Chen ,&nbsp;Haiyan Lou ,&nbsp;Meijian Wang ,&nbsp;Shuyan Yu","doi":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115825","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115825","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Chronic stress-induced depression is a prevalent neuropsychiatric disease with high recurrence and suicide rate, which brings a heavy burden to society. However, the cure rate for depression remains comparatively low in clinical practice, partially due to the unclear pathogenesis. The present study showed that increased expression of miR-146a-5p within hippocampus may lead to depression-like behaviors in rats, accompanied by loss of neuronal dendritic spines, decreased expression of synaptic-related proteins, enhanced neuroinflammatory response and suppressed neurogenesis, effects which appear to be mediated by the SMAD4 signaling pathway. However, knock-down of miR-146a-5p within the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) regions of depressed rats significantly increased the expression of SMAD4, as well as restored the neural deterioration, which consequently ameliorates the depression-like behaviors in rats. In summary, these results suggest that chronic unpredicted mild stress (CUMS) may cause neuronal injury and neurogenesis deficits via up-regulating miR-146a-5p/SMAD4 pathway within the hippocampus, which provides the potential therapeutic target for the treatment of depression.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8823,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Brain Research","volume":"496 ","pages":"Article 115825"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145069050","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}