Thank you for visiting nature. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer.
In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. The prefrontal cortex PFC is a complex brain region that regulates diverse functions ranging from cognition, emotion and executive action to even pain processing.
To decode the cellular and circuit organization of such diverse functions, we employed spatially resolved single-cell transcriptome profiling of the adult mouse PFC.
Results revealed that PFC has distinct cell-type composition and gene-expression patterns relative to neighboring cortical areasβwith neuronal excitability-regulating genes differently expressed.
These cellular and molecular features are further segregated within PFC subregions, alluding to the subregion-specificity of several PFC functions. PFC projects to major subcortical targets through combinations of neuronal subtypes, which emerge in a target-intrinsic fashion. Finally, based on these features, we identified distinct cell types and circuits in PFC underlying chronic pain, an escalating healthcare challenge with limited molecular understanding.
