ArticleNature communications2024
Prefrontal cortex neurons encode ambient light intensity differentially across regions and layers.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Retinal light perception and biological rhythms: The role of light in sleep and mood from an ophthalmic perspective (Review).Molecular medicine reports · 2026Review
- A novel theory of rapid eye movement sleep as an integral component of the seasonal timekeeping apparatus.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Neural mechanisms of the V2M-PrL pathway mediate blue light-induced spatial memory impairment.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Low-Intensity Constant Light During Early Postnatal Development Induces Sex-Specific Anxiety-Like Behaviour and Region- and Sex-Specific Changes in Circadian Gene Expression and RNA Editing.Cellular and molecular neurobiology · 2025Article
- Higher-order thalamic input to cortex selectively conveys state information.Cell reports · 2025Article
- Beyond vision: effects of light on the circadian clock and mood-related behaviours.Npj biological timing and sleep · 2025Review
- Prefrontal cortex neurons encode ambient light intensity differentially across regions and layers.Nature communications · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
Abstract
While light can affect emotional and cognitive processes of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), no light-encoding was hitherto identified in this region. Here, extracellular recordings in awake mice revealed that over half of studied mPFC neurons showed photosensitivity, that was diminished by inhibition of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs), or of the upstream thalamic perihabenular nucleus (PHb). In 15% of mPFC photosensitive neurons, firing rate changed monotonically along light-intensity steps and gradients. These light-intensity-encoding neurons comprised four types, two enhancing and two suppressing their firing rate with increased light intensity. Similar types were identified in the PHb, where they exhibited shorter latency and increased sensitivity. Light suppressed prelimbic activity but boosted infralimbic activity, mirroring the regions' contrasting roles in fear-conditioning, drug-seeking, and anxiety. We posit that prefrontal photosensitivity represents a substrate of light-susceptible, mPFC-mediated functions, which could be ultimately studied as a therapeutical target in psychiatric and addiction disorders.
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