Blunted Diurnal Firing in Lateral Habenula Projections to Dorsal Raphe Nucleus and Delayed Photoentrainment in Stress-Susceptible Mice

Daily rhythms are disrupted in patients suffering from mood disorders. The lateral habenula (LHb) and dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) contribute to circadian timekeeping and regulate mood. Thus, pathophysiology in these nuclei may be responsible for aberrations in daily rhythms during mood disorders. Using the chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) paradigm and slice electrophysiology we measured the effects of stress on diurnal rhythms in firing of LHb cells projecting to the DRN (cells) and DRN cells alone. We also performed optogenetic experiments to investigate if increased firing in cells during exposure to subthreshold social defeat stress (SSDS), induces stress-susceptibility. Last we investigated whether exposure to CSDS affected the ability of mice to phototentrain to a new LD cycle. The cells and DRN cells alone of stress-susceptible mice express greater blunted diurnal firing compared to stress-naive (control) and stress-resilient mice. Day-time optogenetic activation of cells during SSDS induces stress-susceptibility which shows the direct correlation between increased activity in this circuit and putative mood disorders. Finally, we found that stress-susceptible mice are slower, while stress-resilient mice are faster, at photoentraining to a new LD cycle. Our findings suggest that CSDS induces blunted daily rhythms in firing in cells and slow rate of photoentrainment in susceptible-mice. In contrast, resilientmice may undergo homeostatic adaptations that maintain daily rhythms in firing in cells and also show rapid photoentrainment to a new LD-cycle.