Book Section #17001

Abstract

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a complex neuropsychiatric syndrome characterized by pervasive disturbances in mood regulation, reward sensitivity, cognitive control, and neurovegetative functioning that is associated with disrupted functional connectivity across brain networks. Probe in vivo function of specific circuits using optogenetic tools combined with integration of chemogenetic tools and recent advances in vivo imaging and electrophysiological techniques will improve our understanding of the circuit mechanisms of depression. Recent research in patients and preclinical animal models has focused on identifying the neural circuits that mediate separable characteristics of depression, and connections between the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and subcortical regions such as the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA) have emerged as candidate targets. Combination of animal models of major depression together with the development of novel and sophisticated technologies to study neural circuit changes provides a good possibility for the development of newer and better therapeutics for the treatment of MDD in the near future. Understanding the exact nature of the causally important abnormalities in these circuits will contribute to identifying the neural circuits underlying MDD and to modulate circuit and behavioral dysfunction with accurate and individual experimental interventions. Here, we review recent technological advances designed to precisely monitor and manipulate neural circuit activity. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.