Chronic social defeat stress increases burst firing of nucleus accumbens-projecting ventral subicular neurons in stress-susceptible mice

The ventral subiculum (vSub) is the major output structure of the hippocampus and serves as a main limbic region in mediating the brain's response to stress. Previously, we reported that there are three subtypes of vSub neurons based on their firing patterns: regular-spiking (RS), weak-bursting (WB) and strong-bursting (SB) neurons and chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) increased SB neurons especially in the proximal vSub. Here, we found that neurons in the proximal vSub projected to the nucleus accumbens (NAc). CSDS significantly increased SB neurons but decreased RS neurons among the NAc-projecting vSub neuronal population. Interestingly, these changes were only apparent in mice susceptible to CSDS, but not in CSDS-resilient ones. Given that ventral hippocampal inputs to the NAc regulate susceptibility to CSDS, the bursting activity of NAc-projecting vSub neurons might be functionally relevant to behavioral susceptibility to CSDS.