ArticleNature neuroscience2025
Developmentally distinct architectures in top-down pathways controlling threat avoidance.
Article in Nature neuroscience, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Early adversity promotes adolescent avoidance behavior by enhancing prefrontal-amygdala communication through CRHbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Anterior Cingulate Cortex Projections to the Amygdala in Primates: Topographic and Layer-Specific Organization Underlying Emotion and Mood Regulation.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Anterior Cingulate Cortex Astrocytes Regulate Chronic Itch and Comorbid Negative Emotional Disorders in Mice.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2026Article
- Oxytocin attenuates fear learning via enhancing somatostatin interneuron-mediated local GABAergic inhibition in the prelimbic cortex.Science advances · 2026Article
- The cerebellum implements structured representation of valence to support adaptive behavior control.Science advances · 2026Article
- Article
- A Glutamatergic Medial Prefrontal Cortex-Locus Coeruleus Circuit Drives Intestinal Dysmotility in Diarrhea-Predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Prefrontal cortex development and its implications in mental illness.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Review
- Medial prefrontal cortex circuit dynamics involved in stage-specific addiction.Brain structure & function · 2025Review
- Long-Term Memory Engrams From Development to Adulthood.Hippocampus · 2025Review
- Early-life stress sensitizes response to future stress: Evidence and mechanisms.Neurobiology of stress · 2025Review
- Microglia regulate nucleus accumbens synaptic development and circuit function underlying threat avoidance behaviors.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Modifying the platform-mediated avoidance task: A new protocol to study active avoidance within a social context in rats.PloS one · 2025Article
- Development of Prefrontal Circuits and Cognitive Abilities.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2024Review
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14 authors.
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Abstract
The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is critical for learning and decision-making processes, including responding to threats. The protracted maturation of the mPFC extends into early adulthood. Although prominent models suggest that increasing top-down control by the mPFC eventually allows adult behavioral repertoires to emerge, it is unclear how progressive strengthening can produce nonlinear behavioral changes observed across development. We use fiber photometry and optogenetics to establish causal links between frontolimbic pathway activity and threat avoidance strategies in juvenile, adolescent and adult mice. We uncover multiple developmental switches in the roles of mPFC pathways targeting the nucleus accumbens and basolateral amygdala. These changes are accompanied by axonal pruning, strengthening of synaptic connectivity and altered functional connectivity with downstream cell types, which occur in the mPFC-basolateral amygdala and mPFC-nucleus accumbens pathways at different rates. Our results reveal how developing mPFC pathways pass through distinct architectures that may make them optimally adapted to age-specific challenges.
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