The Department of Neurobiology is excited to launch a new series that will highlight faculty members’ papers in peer-reviewed journals. Neurobiologists are advancing the field of neuroscience through fundamental basic and translational research. From studies of the nervous system to genetic and environmental diseases, our researchers are interested in a wide range of neuroscience topics that aim to improve human health.
For our first installment, we sat down with Kirstie Cummings, Ph.D., to learn about her work with the mouse model’s dorsal peduncular cortex and a surprising discovery made on the function of this part of the mouse model’s brain.
Cummings’ paper, “The mouse dorsal peduncular cortex encodes fear memory,” was published in Cell Reports in April 2024.
Q: Can you describe the key findings of your recent publication in Cell Reports?
Our paper describes a new and unexpected role for the dorsal peduncular subregion of the mouse medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in the regulation of emotions. Previous studies have either largely ignored the dorsal peduncular cortex, or had hypothesized that it functions in fear suppression. In our paper, we reveal that the dorsal peduncular cortex surprisingly functions to encode fear memories – a finding that is at odds with its previous proposed role.
Q: How does your discovery advance our understanding of the brain and its functions?
Our understanding of brain function, especially in relation to emotion and memory, is still evolving and coming into focus. By identifying a new fear-related role for this understudied region in the mPFC, our research adds depth to our existing knowledge of how the brain manages adaptive behaviors and emotional responses.
Q: How do you foresee your findings impacting future research or clinical practices?
Our discoveries open several paths for future research in the field of emotional regulation by the prefrontal cortex. For instance, in post-traumatic stress disorder patients, hyperactivity has been observed in the area thought to be the human functional analog for the dorsal peduncular cortex. Our results lay the foundation for beginning to understand the cell and circuit mechanisms underlying this hyperactivity and for developing circuit-based approaches for mitigating such pathological hyperactivity.
Q: Were there any surprising or unexpected results in your research?
Due to its anatomical location within the highly functionally-organized mPFC, we initially expected that the dorsal peduncular cortex would regulate fear memory suppression. We were surprised to see that, after performing experiment after experiment, all results pointed to the opposite result – that the dorsal peduncular cortex paradoxically regulates fear. This was an unexpected finding that challenges our existing understanding of the functional organization of the mPFC, in addition to raising additional intriguing questions about how threat and safety signals might be processed and integrated in this area.
Q: How do you plan to build on this research in your future studies?
One crucial aspect of brain functioning is understanding not just how a brain region might function in isolation, but also how it is interconnected to and interacts with other regions to generate complex behaviors. Future studies are focused on mapping the brain-wide connectome of the dorsal peduncular cortex, in addition to focusing on how it regulates a variety of other experiences including those that are both aversive and appetitive. As this region is highly understudied, many open paths exist, which we find to be particularly exciting.