Grant: Project Grant

Mood and anxiety disorders are the number one class of mental illness in Canada. Understanding the connections in the brain that support normal and abnormal anxiety remains a high priority for basic and translational biomedical research. Neural activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a vital role in managing anxiety levels, and brain regions connected to the PFC have been shown to contribute to the generation of anxiety. The claustrum is a small subcortical nucleus that receives input from other anxiety related brain regions and sends axonal outputs to the PFC. Therefore, the claustrum is positioned to participate in the generation or modulation of anxiety. Due to technical difficulties associated with measuring and manipulating neural activity in this small nucleus, its role in anxiety-related behaviors has not been systematically investigated. We have devised a strategy to specifically measure and manipulate neural activity in claustrum neurons projecting to the PFC. This grant proposal outlines a series of experiments that will determine how neural activity in the claustrum participates in generating or modulating anxiety in mice. The results will provide insight into the function of this previously overlooked brain region and determine its role in anxiety processing. Treatments for anxiety-related disorders will benefit from the basic neurobiological knowledge generated through this project, as the claustrum presents a new brain structure that can be targeted by novel anxiolytic pharmacological agents.