Increasing resolution in stress neurobiology: from single cells to complex group behaviors

Abstract

Stress can have severe psychological and physiological consequences. Thus, inappropriate regulation of the stress response is linked to the etiology of mood and anxiety disorders. The generation and implementation of preclinical animal models represent valuable tools to explore and characterize the mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of stress-related psychiatric disorders and the development of novel pharmacological strategies. In this commentary, we discuss the strengths and limitations of state-of-the-art molecular and computational advances employed in stress neurobiology research, with a focus on the ever-increasing spatiotemporal resolution in cell biology and behavioral science. Finally, we share our perspective on future directions in the fields of preclinical and human stress research.

Keywords:

• Stress neurobiology
• animal models of stress
• single cells
• complex behaviours
• molecular neurobiology
• computational science

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Bertram Müller-Myhsok, Dr. Mathias V. Schmidt, Dr. Patrizia Romualdi and Dr. Alon Chen for their mentorship and unconditional support. Figure 1 was created with BioRender.com

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

L.M is supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Ph.D grant agreement No. 813533. J.B is supported by the “Kids2Health” grant of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research [01GL1743C]. J.P.L is supported by Starting Grants from The Strategic Research Area Neuroscience (StratNeuro), The Svenska Sällskapet För Medicinsk Forskning (SSMF) [No SG-22-0204-H-02], and Strategic Recruitment in Research Funds from Karolinska Institutet and the Department of Neuroscience..

Notes on contributors

Lucas Miranda

Lucas Miranda is a PhD student in the Statistical Genetics group of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, directed by Dr. Bertram Müller-Myhsok (Munich, Germany). His research focuses mainly on machine learning analysis of time series data, with a strong focus on developing tools for behavioral segmentation.

Joeri Bordes

Joeri Bordes is a PhD student in the Neurobiology of Stress Resilience laboratory of Dr. Mathias Schmidt at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (Munich, Germany). His research aims to implement novel behavioral analysis tools to unravel the influence of stress on social behavior and fear memory.

Serena Gasperoni

Serena Gasperoni is a PhD student in the laboratory of Dr. Juan Pablo Lopez in the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm, Sweden). Her research aims to identify the molecular mechanisms, cellular circuits and behaviors associated with an antidepressant response to psychedelic compounds.

Juan Pablo Lopez

Dr. Juan Pablo Lopez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm, Sweden). His laboratory combines advanced molecular, behavioural and computational tools to characterize the molecular mechanisms, cellular circuits, and behavioural “language” associated with stress-related psychiatric disorders and their treatments, using animal models.