P2.21. MANIPULATION OF PREFRONTAL SOMATOSTATIN INTERNEURON ACTIVITY AFFECTS EMOTIONAL CONTAGION
Ksenia Meyza1, Tomasz Nikolaev1, Emilia Goszczyńska2,3, Natalia Roszkowska1, Joanna Sadowska1, Tomasz Górkiewicz1, Ewelina Knapska1
1 Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Warsaw, Poland
2 International Max Planck Research School for Neurosciences, Gottingen, Germany
3 Georg August Unoversity of Gottingen, Germany
INTRODUCTION: The role of specific neuronal populations in the prefrontal cortex in emotion recognition is well characterized (Jabarin et al 2025). Specifically, somatostatin interneurons were (Choi et al. 2024, Dautan et al. 2024, Scheggia et al. 2020) indicated as playing a crucial role in this process. Their exact role in emotional contagion remains unknown.
AIM(S): To study the role of prefrontal somatostatin interneurons in emotional contagion occuring during remote transfer of fear paradigm.
METHOD(S): To do that mice were housed in pairs for three weeks, one labelled an Observer, and the other a Demonstrator. In the test session, the Demonstrator was subjected to aversive stimuli (10 foot shocks 0.6mA 1s long), outside of the home cage, while the Observer remained there undisturbed. Upon the return of the Demonstrator to the home cage, we recorded the interactions of the two animals. The behaviour was assessed with DeepLabCut (for pose estimation) and that set was then fed to Simba for detailed classification. Ninety minutes after the onset of the interaction animals were sacrificed for immunochemistry. To check the activity of somatostatin cells we either used mice expressing fluorescence marker (dTomato) in somatostatin cells whose brain slices were subjected to immunochemistry against c-Fos or checked that expression in neurons infected with pAAV-hSyn-DIO-HA-hM4D(Gi)-IRES-mCitrine (AAV8) or pAAV-hSyn-DIO-HA-h3D(Gq)-IRES-mCitrine (AAV8) in SOM-Cre mice.
RESULTS: We observed an increased expression of c-Fos in somatostatin cells in both pre and infralimbic prefrontal cortex of Observers subjected to a stressed cagemate. The chemogenetic excitation (c21) of somatostatin neurons resulted with a decrease of investigation of the anogenital region of the Demonstrator by the Observer, while inhibition of these neurons had no significant effect.
CONCLUSIONS: This proves that somatostatin interneurons are essential for regulation of emotional contagion in the safe environment of the home cage
FINANCIAL SUPPORT: NCN 2019/35/N/NZ4/01948 and 2022/47/B/NZ4/01192