ArticleFrontiers in neural circuits2021
Dorsal Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis-Subcortical Output Circuits Encode Positive Bias in Pavlovian Fear and Reward.
Article in Frontiers in neural circuits, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- A Distinct Subpopulation of Extended Amygdala Neurons Drives Food Intake.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Perceived Racial Stress Effects on Neuropsychological Functioning in African Americans are Mediated by the Brain's Reward/Safety SEEKING Systems via Neuroimmune and Neuroendocrine Pathways.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Stress History Modulates Corticotropin-Releasing Factor Neurons to Establish Resilience.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- A Distinct Subpopulation of Extended Amygdala Neurons Drives Food Intake.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Prepronociceptin-Expressing Neurons in the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis Signal Escape Behavior.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- Article
- Persistent Threat Avoidance Following Negative Reinforcement Is Not Associated with Elevated State Anxiety.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Chemogenetic activation of corticotropin-releasing factor-expressing neurons in the anterior bed nucleus of the stria terminalis reduces effortful motivation behaviors.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Sexual differentiation of neural mechanisms of stress sensitivity during puberty.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- The neurophysiological basis of stress and anxiety - comparing neuronal diversity in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) across species.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Opposite emotions like fear and reward states often utilize the same brain regions. The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) comprises one hub for processing fear and reward processes. However, it remains unknown how dorsal BNST (dBNST) circuits process these antagonistic behaviors. Here, we exploited a combined Pavlovian fear and reward conditioning task that exposed mice to conditioned tone stimuli (CS)s, either paired with sucrose delivery or footshock unconditioned stimuli (US). Pharmacological inactivation identified the dorsal BNST as a crucial element for both fear and reward behavior. Deep brain calcium imaging revealed opposite roles of two distinct dBNST neuronal output pathways to the periaqueductal gray (PAG) or paraventricular hypothalamus (PVH). dBNST neural activity profiles differentially process valence and Pavlovian behavior components: dBNST-PAG neurons encode fear CS, whereas dBNST-PVH neurons encode reward responding. Optogenetic activation of BNST-PVH neurons increased reward seeking, whereas dBNST-PAG neurons attenuated freezing. Thus, dBNST-PVH or dBNST-PAG circuitry encodes oppositely valenced fear and reward states, while simultaneously triggering an overall positive affective response bias (increased reward seeking while reducing fear responses). We speculate that this mechanism amplifies reward responding and suppresses fear responses linked to BNST dysfunction in stress and addictive behaviors.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.