Pattern decorrelation in the mouse medial prefrontal cortex enables social preference and requires MeCP2

Authors

Pan Xu, The GW Institute for Neuroscience, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, 20037, USA.
Yuanlei Yue, The GW Institute for Neuroscience, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, 20037, USA.
Juntao Su, The GW Institute for Neuroscience, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, 20037, USA.
Xiaoqian Sun, Department of Computer Science, School of Engineering and Applied Science, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, 20037, USA.
Hongfei Du, Department of Statistics, Columbian College of Art and Sciences, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, 20037, USA.
Zhichao Liu, Department of Physics, Columbian College of Art and Sciences, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, 20037, USA.
Rahul Simha, Department of Computer Science, School of Engineering and Applied Science, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, 20037, USA.
Jianhui Zhou, Department of Statistics, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA.
Chen Zeng, Department of Statistics, Columbian College of Art and Sciences, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, 20037, USA.
Hui Lu, The GW Institute for Neuroscience, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, 20037, USA. huilu@email.gwu.edu.

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

7-6-2022

Journal

Nature communications

Volume

13

Issue

1

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-31578-9

Abstract

Sociability is crucial for survival, whereas social avoidance is a feature of disorders such as Rett syndrome, which is caused by loss-of-function mutations in MECP2. To understand how a preference for social interactions is encoded, we used in vivo calcium imaging to compare medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activity in female wild-type and Mecp2-heterozygous mice during three-chamber tests. We found that mPFC pyramidal neurons in Mecp2-deficient mice are hypo-responsive to both social and nonsocial stimuli. Hypothesizing that this limited dynamic range restricts the circuit's ability to disambiguate coactivity patterns for different stimuli, we suppressed the mPFC in wild-type mice and found that this eliminated both pattern decorrelation and social preference. Conversely, stimulating the mPFC in MeCP2-deficient mice restored social preference, but only if it was sufficient to restore pattern decorrelation. A loss of social preference could thus indicate impaired pattern decorrelation rather than true social avoidance.

APA Citation

Xu, Pan; Yue, Yuanlei; Su, Juntao; Sun, Xiaoqian; Du, Hongfei; Liu, Zhichao; Simha, Rahul; Zhou, Jianhui; Zeng, Chen; and Lu, Hui, "Pattern decorrelation in the mouse medial prefrontal cortex enables social preference and requires MeCP2" (2022). GW Authored Works. Paper 1357.
https://hsrc.himmelfarb.gwu.edu/gwhpubs/1357

Department

Pharmacology and Physiology