Chronic stress induces co-ordinated cortical microcircuit cell type transcriptomic changes consistent with altered information processing
Bibliographic record
Abstract
ABSTRACT Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with altered GABAergic and glutamatergic signalling, suggesting altered excitation-inhibition balance (EIB) in cortical mood- and cognition-regulating brain regions. Information processing in cortical microcircuits involves regulation of pyramidal (PYR) cells by Somatostatin-(SST), Parvalbumin-(PV), and Vasoactive intestinal peptide-(VIP) expressing interneurons. Human and rodent studies suggest that impaired PYR-cell dendritic morphology and decreased SST-cell function may mediate altered EIB in MDD. However, knowledge of co-ordinated changes across microcircuit cell types is virtually absent. We thus investigated the co-ordinated transcriptomic effects of UCMS on microcircuit cell types in the medial prefrontal cortex. C57Bl/6 mice, exposed to unpredictable chronic mild stress (UCMS) or control housing for five weeks were assessed for anxiety- and depressive-like behaviours. Microcircuit cell types were laser-microdissected and processed for RNA-sequencing. UCMS-exposed mice displayed predicted elevated behavioural emotionality. Each microcircuit cell type showed a unique transcriptional signature after UCMS. Pre-synaptic functions, oxidative stress response, metabolism, and translational regulation were differentially dysregulated across cell types, whereas nearly all cell types showed down-regulated post-synaptic gene signatures. At the microcircuit level, we observed a shift from distributed transcriptomic co-ordination across cell types in controls towards UCMS-induced increased co-ordination between PYR-, SST- and PV-cells, and a hub-like role for PYR-cells. Lastly, we identified a microcircuit-wide co-expression network enriched in synaptic, bioenergetic, and oxidative stress response genes that correlated with UCMS-induced behaviours. Together, these findings suggest cell-specific deficits, microcircuit-wide synaptic reorganization, and a shift in cortical EIB mediated by increased co-ordinated regulation of PYR-cells by SST- and PV-cells.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".