title: Chronic stress disrupts neural coherence between cortico-limbic structures.
abstract: Chronic stress impairs cognitive function, namely on tasks that rely on the integrity of cortico-limbic networks. To unravel the functional impact of progressive stress in cortico-limbic networks we measured neural activity and spectral coherences between the ventral hippocampus (vHIP) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in rats subjected to short term stress (STS) and chronic unpredictable stress (CUS). CUS exposure consistently disrupted the spectral coherence between both areas for a wide range of frequencies, whereas STS exposure failed to trigger such effect. The chronic stress-induced coherence decrease correlated inversely with the vHIP power spectrum, but not with the mPFC power spectrum, which supports the view that hippocampal dysfunction is the primary event after stress exposure. Importantly, we additionally show that the variations in vHIP-to-mPFC coherence and power spectrum in the vHIP correlated with stress-induced behavioral deficits in a spatial reference memory task. Altogether, these findings result in an innovative readout to measure, and follow, the functional events that underlie the stress-induced reference memory impairments.
authors: School of Health Sciences, Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), University of Minho Braga, Portugal ; ICVS/3B's - PT Government Associate Laboratory Braga/Guimarães, Portugal.
authors: João Filipe
authors: JF
authors: Oliveira
authors: Nuno Sérgio
authors: NS
authors: Dias
authors: Mariana
authors: M
authors: Correia
authors: Filipa
authors: F
authors: Gama-Pereira
authors: Vanessa Morais
authors: VM
authors: Sardinha
authors: Ana
authors: A
authors: Lima
authors: Ana Filipa
authors: AF
authors: Oliveira
authors: Luís Ricardo
authors: LR
authors: Jacinto
authors: Daniela Silva
authors: DS
authors: Ferreira
authors: Ana Maria
authors: AM
authors: Silva
authors: Joana Santos
authors: JS
authors: Reis
authors: João José
authors: JJ
authors: Cerqueira
authors: Nuno
authors: N
authors: Sousa
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D008032:Limbic System / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology
keywords: chronic stress; coherence; hippocampus; power spectrum; prefrontal cortex
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