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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neural Circuits
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fncir.2025.1567036
This article is part of the Research Topic Brain Cell Types, Circuits and Disorders View all 6 articles
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The orbitofrontal cortex (ORB) exhibits a complex structure and diverse functional roles, including emotion regulation, decision-making, and reward processing. Structurally, it comprises three distinct regions: the medial part (ORBm), the ventrolateral part (ORBvl), and the lateral part (ORBl), each with unique functional attributes, such as ORBm's involvement in reward processing, ORBvl's regulation of depression-like behavior, and ORBl's response to aversive stimuli. Abnormalities in the ORB have been linked to psychiatric disorders like major depression and schizophrenia. However, the neurocircuitry underlying the functions and dysfunctions of the ORB remains poorly understood. In this study, we mapped and compared the whole-brain input patterns of ORB subregions in C57BL/6J male mice. Our results revealed that the ORB receives inputs from diverse brain regions, predominantly from the isocortex and thalamus, with ipsilateral regions contributing more inputs. Furthermore, through quantitative analysis and comparison of upstream input neurons to ORB subregions, we found that the ORB has complex internal circuitry, including abundant local projections, and that specific subregions exhibit notable variations in the proportional contribution of inputs from different brain regions. These findings illuminate the structural framework of the ORB, enhancing our understanding of the functions of its subregions and their roles in the onset and progression of psychiatric disorders.
Keywords: orbitofrontal cortex, neural circuit, Monosynaptic tracing, whole-brain inputs, rabies virus tracing
Received: 26 Jan 2025; Accepted: 18 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Yang, Shen and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Tonghui Xu, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
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