Table of Contents

Habenula

Subregions: Lateral and Medial Habenula Lateral habenula recieves inputs from forebrain limbic regions and submits outputs to dopaminergic and serotonergic midbrains structures. Numerous studies have shown excitation of habenula to punishments and predictions of punishments, as well as omissions of predicted rewards and predictions of reward omission. The habenula is also implicated in other functions including stress, anxiety, pain, learning and attention (Hikosaka 2009)

http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Epithalamus

Image and Location

Neurosynth structure image: n/a

Neurosynth connectivity image:

Image from Ide Li 2011:
(Habenula in blue)

Images from Savitz 2011:

Image from Lawson 2013:

Image of connectivity (Hong, Jhou, Smith 2011)

Searches

Searches so far:

Most important references

Endnote Package Library (with PDFs)

Structure

Connectivity:

Inputs

Lateral hypothalamus GPb (Globus pallidus border); other cells in pallidal region Entopeduncular nucleus (excitatory projection) (Main pathway in rats; in monkeys peri-pallidal cells and lateral hypothalamus appear to be the main inputs) Olfactory tubercule Vertical limb of diagonal band nucleus Lateral preoptic area SN pars reticulata

Outputs

LHb: Primarily outputs through RMTg, which projects to SNc VTA DRN

Habenula has reciprocal connections with: -Lateral hypothalamic area -Thalamic nuclei -Dorsal and median raphe nuclei

Nucleus of diagonal band Ventral pallidum Substantia innominata

MHb: Interpenduncular nucleus

Functions

Summary list

-Reward -Stress -Fear/Anxiety -Pain -Addiction -Sleep -Higher level cognitive functions: feedback and prediction errors

Learning signals for negative valence (punishment)

Habenular neurons show excitation to a target predicting an aversive stimulus or a stimulus predicting no reward, which precedes inhibition in dopamine neurons for reward omission (Matsumoto Hikosaka 2007). This habenula-VTA pathway is now thought to go through the RMTg. Habenula neurons also show excitation to conditioned stimuli predicting negative valence rewards or reward omissions (Matsumoto Hikosaka 2009)

Effects of stimulation

* Deep brain stimulation of habenula neurons decreased sucrose self-administration levels (Friedman, Lax et al 2011) * DBS of habenula also led to aversion of a context associated with stimulation of that region

Effects of lesions

*Lesions of habenula increased sucrose seeking behavior, resulting in delayed extinction for substitution of sucrose with water (Friedman, Lax et al 2011)

Effects of microinjection

Optogenetics

(Shabel, Proulx, Trias et al 2012)

Other

Anxiety and stress responses; learned helplessness

Effects of stimulation

Effects of lesions/inactivation

Optogenetics

(Stamatakis, Stuber, 2012)

Effects of microinjection

*Injection of kainic acid (an excitatory amino acid) into habenula facilitated acquisition of inhibitory avoidance while impairing escape behaviors. Inhibitory avoidance is thought to be related to anxiety behaviors, while one-way escape is more related to fear. (Pobbe Zangrossi 08)

Other

Studies activating

Coordinates

Coordinates (x, y, z): [4, -22, 4] , [-4, -22, 4] Say how overall coordinates were derived here: hand-drawn ROI on MNI 152 (close to average of studies below)

Specific study coordinates (if not too many)

Study Description x y z
Ide 2011 Stop error > Stop success -14 -20 10
Ullsberger 2003 Negative > Positive Feedback -4 -24 7
Shelton 2012 Activation to late phase pain 4/-4 -23 4
Hennigan 2015 E-Shock > neutral trials -1 -29 -2

(Ullsberger activations reported in Talairach coordinates -5,-25,8, converted to MNI for table)
(Hennigan activations reported in Talairach coordinates -2,-29,0, converted to MNI for table)
Ide Li activations include thalamus

ROI: habenula_roi.zip

List of Studies

Specific, key studies

Study list: Coordinate based

Neurosynth results for coordinate(s)

<list studies here from Neurosynth database>