BACKGROUND Following a social defeat, the balanced establishment and extinction of aversive information is a beneficial strategy for individual survival. Abnormal establishment or extinction is implicated in the development of mental disorders. This study investigated the time course of the establishment and extinction of aversive information from acute social defeat and the temporal responsiveness of the basolateral amygdala (BLA), ventral hippocampus (vHIP) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in this process. METHODS Mouse models of acute social defeat were established by using the resident-intruder paradigm. To evaluate the engram of social defeat, the intruder mice were placed into the novel context at designated time to test the social behavior. Furthermore, responses of BLA, vHIP and mPFC were investigated by analyzing the expression of immediate early genes, such as zif268, arc, and c-fos. RESULTS The results showed after an aggressive attack, aversive memory was maintained for approximately 7 days before gradually diminishing. The establishment and maintenance of aversive stimulation were consistently accompanied by BLA activity. By contrast, vHIP and mPFC response was inhibited from this process. Additionally, injecting muscimol (Mus), a GABA receptor agonist, into the BLA alleviated the freezing behavior and social fear and avoidance. Simultaneously, Mus treatment decreased the zif268 and arc expression in BLA, but it increased their expression in vHIP. CONCLUSION Our data support and extend earlier findings that implicate BLA, vHIP and mPFC in social defeat. The time courses of the establishment and extinction of social defeat are particularly consistent with the contrasting BLA and vHIP responses involved in this process.

中文翻译：

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基底外侧杏仁核，腹侧海马和内侧前额叶皮层的相互作用调节了社会恐惧感的巩固和消亡。

背景技术在社交失败之后，厌恶信息的均衡建立和消亡是个人生存的有益策略。异常的建立或消亡与精神障碍的发展有关。这项研究调查了急性社交失调所致厌恶信息的建立和消亡的时程，以及在此过程中基底外侧杏仁核（BLA），腹侧海马（vHIP）和内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC）的时间反应性。方法使用常驻入侵者模式建立急性社交失败的小鼠模型。为了评估社交失败的印记，在指定的时间将入侵者小鼠置于新颖的环境中，以测试社交行为。此外，BLA的回应，通过分析立即早期基因（如zif268，arc和c-fos）的表达来研究vHIP和mPFC。结果结果表明，攻击性攻击后，厌恶记忆保持约7天，然后逐渐减少。厌恶刺激的建立和维持始终伴随着BLA活动。相比之下，vHIP和mPFC响应被此过程抑制。此外，向BLA中注射GABA受体激动剂muscimol（Mus）可减轻其冻结行为以及社会恐惧感和回避感。同时，Mus处理降低了BLA中的zif268和arc表达，但增加了它们在vHIP中的表达。结论我们的数据支持并扩展了先前的发现，这些发现暗示了BLA，vHIP和mPFC会导致社会失败。