Social memory enables animals to recognize familiar conspecifics and determines behaviours that are crucial for survival. Wang et al. now describe a neural circuit in mice that links the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) to social memory.

Neuroanatomical and functional tracing identified cells of the parafascicular thalamic nucleus (PF) as the main postsynaptic targets of sTRN^Pvalb, and glutamatergic neurons of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) as the presynaptic source of social memory-associated signals. The excitatory PPC→sTRN and inhibitory sTRN→PF circuits were both required for the encoding and retrieval of social memory. Cell tracing experiments showed that these circuits combine to form a pathway of monosynaptic connections that results in the inhibition of PF activity via GABA released by sTRN^Pvalb neurons in response to PPC input signals.

社会记忆使动物能够识别熟悉的同种动物并确定对生存至关重要的行为。王等人。现在描述了小鼠中将丘脑网状核（TRN）与社会记忆联系起来的神经回路。

神经解剖学和功能追踪将丘脑束旁核 (PF) 的细胞确定为 sTRN ^Pvalb的主要突触后靶点，而后顶叶皮层 (PPC) 的谷氨酸能神经元作为社会记忆相关信号的突触前来源。兴奋性 PPC→sTRN 和抑制性 sTRN→PF 回路都是社会记忆的编码和检索所必需的。细胞示踪实验表明，这些回路结合形成单突触连接通路，通过 sTRN ^Pvalb神经元响应 PPC 输入信号释放的 GABA 抑制 PF 活性。