MK-801 attenuates one-trial tolerance in the elevated plus maze via the thalamic nucleus reuniens

Abstract

Anxiety, a future-oriented negative emotional state, is characterized by heightened arousal and vigilance. The elevated plus maze (EPM) test is a widely used assay of anxiety-related behaviors in rodents and shows a phenomenon where animals with prior test experience tend to avoid open arms in retest sessions. While this one-trial tolerance (OTT) phenomenon limits the reuse of the EPM test, the potential mechanisms remain unsolved. Here, we found that neither anxiogenic factors like acute restraint stress nor anxiolytic factors like diazepam (2 mg/kg) influenced the emergence of the OTT phenomenon in mice in the EPM test. In contrast, OTT was markedly attenuated by MK-801 (0.1 mg/kg), a non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist. Through the use of c-fos mapping, MK-801 was found to increase neuronal activation in the thalamic nucleus reuniens (Re). Moreover, chemogenetic inactivation of Re neurons could prevent the effects of MK-801. Our findings suggest the Re as a crucial brain region in emotional adaptation in the EPM and shed light on the experimental design optimization and mechanistic investigation of anxiety-related behaviors.