Grant: Project Grant

Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent group of mental disorders, with estimated annual costs well over $40 billion. Over the last decade, anxiety disorder diagnoses have doubled in Canada and now affect over 1 in 10 Canadians, with the incidence rates of anxiety tripling among 15-24-year-old Canadian women. Given estimates that up to a third of these patients may not respond to available treatments, there is an urgent need for increased research to identify novel mechanisms underlying anxiety disorders to fuel more effective treatments. Often characterized as developmental disorders, anxiety disorders display the earliest age of onset among DSM-V disorders; therefore it is vital for current and emerging anxiety research to span early developmental timepoints to improve our understanding of the etiology of these disorders and to maximize the outcome of early interventions. Our lab recently discovered that the dorsal peduncular cortex (DP), a subregion of the medial prefrontal cortex, is a novel regulator of anxiety-like behaviour and stress in mice. Yet, we still do not know the broader context in which the DP exerts its effects, including which of its upstream and downstream connections or cell types are involved in its modulation of anxiety-like behaviour. To answer these questions, we will use cutting-edge neuroscience techniques to determine (1) which DP cell types contribute to its modulation of anxiety-like behaviour, (2) how brain regions upstream of the DP modulate its function and (3) how the maturation of DP circuitry may guide developmental changes in anxiety-like behaviour. These experiments will be the first to identify a new brain circuit mediating anxiety-like behaviour, building an important foundation for future health-related research with crucial implications for our understanding of the etiology and treatment of anxiety disorders.