Social transmission and buffering of synaptic changes after stress

• Published in: Nature neuroscience Vol. 21; no. 3; pp. 393 - 403
• Main Authors: Sterley, Toni-Lee, Baimoukhametova, Dinara, Füzesi, Tamás, Zurek, Agnieszka A., Daviu, Nuria, Rasiah, Neilen P., Rosenegger, David, Bains, Jaideep S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.03.2018; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/378/1831; 631/378/2645; 64/60; 9/74; Alarm pheromone; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Behavioral Sciences; Biological Techniques; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Corticotropin; Corticotropin-releasing hormone; Distress signals; Glutamate; Hormones; Hypothalamus; Mice; Neural circuitry; Neural networks; Neurobiology; Neurons; Neurosciences; Paraventricular nucleus; Pituitary hormones; Rodents; Social aspects; Stress; Stresses; Synapses; Synaptic transmission
• ISSN: 1097-6256; 1546-1726; 1546-1726
• DOI: 10.1038/s41593-017-0044-6

Stress can trigger enduring changes in neural circuits and synapses. The behavioral and hormonal consequences of stress can also be transmitted to others, but whether this transmitted stress has similar effects on synapses is not known. We found that authentic stress and transmitted stress in mice primed paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) neurons, enabling the induction of metaplasticity at glutamate synapses. In female mice that were subjected to authentic stress, this metaplasticity was diminished following interactions with a naive partner. Transmission from the stressed subject to the naive partner required the activation of PVN CRH neurons in both subject and partner to drive and detect the release of a putative alarm pheromone from the stressed mouse. Finally, metaplasticity could be transmitted sequentially from the stressed subject to multiple partners. Our findings demonstrate that transmitted stress has the same lasting effects on glutamate synapses as authentic stress and reveal an unexpected role for PVN CRH neurons in transmitting distress signals among individuals. In mice, stress-induced priming of glutamate synapses in the PVN can be transmitted through social interactions. This requires PVN CRH neuron activation in both of the interacting mice and release of an alarm pheromone from the stressed mouse.