Lesions of the medial prefrontal cortex enhance social modulation of avoidance.
Our previous study showed that social interactions induce inhibitory and facilitatory modulations of avoidance behavior under both safe and dangerous situations in rats. To understand the neural mechanisms for these phenomena, we investigated the effects of bilateral lesions of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) on the social modulation of avoidance behavior. We found that the lesions did not impair but actually augmented both social inhibition and facilitation of avoidance. These results suggest that the mPFC in rodents plays a suppressive role in the social modulation of avoidance.
Department of Brain Science and Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Wakamatsu, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka 808-916, Japan. masuda-akira@edu.brain.kyutech.ac.jp
Akira
A
Masuda
Shuji
S
Aou
D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000503:physiopathology; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D016202:N-Methylaspartate / Q000633:toxicity; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000293:injuries* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012919:Social Behavior; D013997:Time Factors
D016202:N-Methylaspartate