title: Medial Prefrontal Cortex-Pontine Nuclei Projections Modulate Suboptimal Cue-Induced Associative Motor Learning.
abstract: Diverse and powerful mechanisms have evolved to enable organisms to modulate learning and memory under a variety of survival conditions. Cumulative evidence has shown that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is closely involved in many higher-order cognitive functions. However, when and how the medial PFC (mPFC) modulates associative motor learning remains largely unknown. Here, we show that delay eyeblink conditioning (DEC) with the weak conditioned stimulus (wCS) but not the strong CS (sCS) elicited a significant increase in the levels of c-Fos expression in caudal mPFC. Both optogenetic inhibition and activation of the bilateral caudal mPFC, or its axon terminals at the pontine nucleus (PN) contralateral to the training eye, significantly impaired the acquisition, recent and remote retrieval of DEC with the wCS but not the sCS. However, direct optogenetic activation of the contralateral PN had no significant effect on the acquisition, recent and remote retrieval of DEC. These results are of great importance in understanding the elusive role of the mPFC and its projection to PN in subserving the associative motor learning under suboptimal learning cue.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.|Experimental Center of Basic Medicine, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
authors.forename: Guang-Yan
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.|Experimental Center of Basic Medicine, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
authors.forename: Shu-Lei
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Experimental Center of Basic Medicine, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physical Education, Southwest University, Chongqing400715, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Experimental Center of Basic Medicine, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Experimental Center of Basic Medicine, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Experimental Center of Basic Medicine, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
authors.forename: Xuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA.
authors.forename: Qian-Quan
authors.initials: QQ
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.|Experimental Center of Basic Medicine, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
authors.forename: Jian-Feng
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Sui
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D003463:Cues; D019706:Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials / Q000235:genetics; D058785:GABA-A Receptor Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009118:Muscimol / Q000494:pharmacology; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D062308:Optogenetics; D010597:Pharmacogenetics; D065821:Pontine Tegmentum / Q000502:physiology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014161:Transduction, Genetic
chemical_list: D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; C581829:Camk2n1 protein, rat; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D058785:GABA-A Receptor Agonists; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; C523009:channelopsin-2, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii; D009118:Muscimol
keywords: associative motor learning; medial prefrontal cortex; pontine nuclei; suboptimal cue