对于大多数人来讲掌控自己的情绪是比较容易的，但是对于一部分人来讲，他们很难妥善处理自己的负面情绪进而进一步发展成抑郁或者是其他心理健康问题。研究人员之前已经定位了控制这种变化的大脑区域，但是仍然对其机制不甚了解。最近一项应用于小鼠上的研究得到了初步的结果，以深入对其机制进行探索。之前的研究已经证明，动物处理压力的大脑区域主要集中在前额叶皮层，同时这部分的神经细胞会通过该表结果和功能来应对外界的压力。研究人员通过对小鼠前额叶皮层通电发现一部分小鼠该区域的部分细胞更容易进入兴奋状态。同时观察到这些小鼠的行为相较于正常小鼠更偏向抑郁，如不能很好的进行外界反馈，不能准确找到食物等。这项研究的发现为抑郁类精神疾病的治疗提供了新的视野和新的可能。（生物谷Bioon.com）

生物谷推荐的英文摘要：

The Journal of Neuroscience      doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5294-13.2014

Synaptic Modifications in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex in Susceptibility and Resilience to Stress

Minghui Wang, Zinaida Perova, Benjamin R. Arenkiel, Bo Li1

When facing stress, most individuals are resilient whereas others are prone to developing mood disorders. The brain mechanisms underlying such divergent behavioral responses remain unclear. Here we used the learned helplessness procedure in mice to examine the role of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a brain region highly implicated in both clinical and animal models of depression, in adaptive and maladaptive behavioral responses to stress. We found that uncontrollable and inescapable stress induced behavioral state-dependent changes in the excitatory synapses onto a subset of mPFC neurons: those that were activated during behavioral responses as indicated by their expression of the activity reporter c-Fos. Whereas synaptic potentiation was linked to learned helplessness, a depression-like behavior, synaptic weakening, was associated with resilience to stress. Notably, enhancing the activity of mPFC neurons using a chemical-genetic method was sufficient to convert the resilient behavior into helplessness. Our results provide direct evidence that mPFC dysfunction is linked to maladaptive behavioral responses to stress, and suggest that enhanced excitatory synaptic drive onto mPFC neurons may underlie the previously reported hyperactivity of this brain region in depression.