bioRxiv Science⌕ Search
Home/Archive/bioRxiv

bioRxiv · 10.1101/2025.09.18.677150

Noradrenergic inputs to the basolateral amygdala have bidirectional effects on coping behavior and neuronal activity in mice

Soares, A. R.·Fai, C.·Mineur, Y. S.·Picciotto, M. R.
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Norepinephrine (NE) signaling is disrupted in stress disorders, with insufficient NE signaling implicated in major depressive disorder and hyperactive NE signaling associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, suggesting that adequate mood regulation requires optimal NE levels. The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is a hub for stress processing and receives dense noradrenergic innervation from the locus coeruleus (LC), the primary noradrenergic nucleus in the brain. The relationship between LC activity and cognitive/behavioral function during fear conditioning has been described as an inverted U, in which moderate LC activity, and subsequent NE release, is required for adaptive coping to threats, while hyperactive LC-NE signaling drives maladaptive behavioral responses. We used fiber photometry to measure NE signaling in the mouse BLA during acute behavioral responses to escapable and inescapable stressors, and then used an optogenetic approach to stimulate the noradrenergic terminals in the BLA at different frequencies to evaluate effects on coping behavior and cFos expression in the LC-BLA circuit. We found that low-frequency stimulation of the circuit inhibited both passive coping and BLA neuronal activity, while high-frequency stimulation had the opposite effect; the behavioral effects were not mediated by sex, but the cFos effects were specific to males. This study represents an expansion of the inverted U framework to encompass LC-BLA signaling driving acute behavioral responses to stress. Graphical abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=79 SRC="FIGDIR/small/677150v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (23K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1b642a7org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@d20eedorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@d22aa7org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1ee4291_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG HighlightsO_LIBLA NE levels signal behavioral transitions between coping responses to stress C_LIO_LILow-frequency stimulation of BLA NE terminals inhibits passive coping and BLA cFos C_LIO_LIHigh-frequency stimulation of BLA NE terminals promotes passive coping and BLA cFos C_LIO_LIBehavioral effects are similar across sexes, but cFos alterations are male- specific C_LI

Source connections

Explore related subjects

neurosciencePreprint

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Soares, A. R., Fai, C., Mineur, Y. S., Picciotto, M. R.. 2025-09-19. Noradrenergic inputs to the basolateral amygdala have bidirectional effects on coping behavior and neuronal activity in mice. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.18.677150

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related preprints

bioRxiv2026

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Cell Types in Describing Neuronal Physiological Features

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) captures detailed gene expression profiles at scale, while patch-clamp recordings measure intrinsic neuronal electrophysiological properties. Modeling the relations between these two modalities remains a challenge. Here, we compare how well electrophysiological features can be predicted by traditional transcriptomic cell type classification, representations derived from a foundational model (scGPT) pretrained on large-scale scRNA-seq datasets, ion channel-coding genes, and highly variable genes. Using paired transcriptomic and electrophysiological patch-sequencing data from 495 human neurons from neurosurgical tissue, we find that cluster-level cell type representations consistently outperform highly variable gene selection, ion channel gene selection, and context-enriched scGPT embeddings. Notably, performance varies across model architectures and initializations, and the best results are obtained by combining the outputs of separate cell type and scGPT-based models. Together, these findings suggest that traditional discrete cellular classification is highly effective in predicting physiological features. For maximum performance it can be complemented by pretrained transformer models.

neuroscience↗
bioRxiv2026

A nonlinear inhibition pathway underlying cortical responses to tuned holographic optogenetic perturbations

Optogenetics enables causal manipulation of cortical activity. Perturbation responses can be counterintuitive due to network interactions, making theory essential for predicting them. Existing approaches often rely on linear approximations, which fail for many biologically relevant perturbations. Here we develop a nonlinear theory of responses to holographic perturbations in cell-type-specific recurrent networks with structured connectivity. We fit a nonlinear model to mouse V1 data, which shows cotuned-ensemble suppression: perturbing spatially clustered neurons with similar preferred orientations yields markedly stronger short-range suppression than perturbing untuned ensembles. We show that cotuned-ensemble suppression arises from a feature-tuned, nonlinear inhibition pathway implicating somatostatin-positive (SST) interneurons. The theory predicts that cotuned ensembles suppress parvalbumin-positive (PV) neurons but facilitate SST neurons, and links the degree of cotuned-ensemble suppression or facilitation to the variance of the SST response. This framework identifies mechanisms by which nonlinear inhibition sculpts cortical dynamics and establishes a predictive basis for targeted optogenetic interventions.

neuroscience↗
bioRxiv2026

Proteomic signatures of APOE ε4 across human tissues and cell types in Alzheimers disease

The apolipoprotein E {varepsilon}4 (APOE {varepsilon}4) allele is the strongest genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimers disease (AD). However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. This study included 1691 participants from the Religious Orders Study and Rush Memory and Aging Project (ROSMAP), 1226 participants from the Accelerating Medicines Partnership - Alzheimers Disease (AMP-AD) Diverse Cohorts Study, and 735 participants from the Alzheimers Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). To characterise APOE {varepsilon}4 molecular effects, we analysed proteomic data from plasma, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived astrocytes and neurons, as well as transcriptomic and proteomic data from multiple brain regions. The association of APOE {varepsilon}4 with AD neuropathology was also examined. APOE {varepsilon}4 carriers shared a plasma proteomic signature enriched for immune processes, irrespective of AD diagnosis. A machine learning classifier trained on this signature discriminated APOE {varepsilon}4 carriers from non-carriers in an independent cohort using CSF proteomics. APOE {varepsilon}4 carriage was associated with higher Braak stages and Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimers Disease (CERAD) score. However, only limited APOE {varepsilon}4-associated transcriptomic and proteomic changes were observed in bulk brain tissue, with poor cross-layer concordance. Proteomic analyses of iPSC-derived astrocytes and neurons further revealed cell-type-specific APOE {varepsilon}4-associated changes. APOE {varepsilon}4 is associated with a consistent proteomic signature across plasma and CSF. Its molecular effects in the brain differ across cell types, brain regions and molecular layers. These findings support the need for cell-type-resolved multi-omic studies to elucidate how APOE {varepsilon}4 confers AD risk.

neuroscience↗