Background. Males and females respond differently to chronic stress. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is part of a complex circuit controlling stress responses and sends projections to other limbic structures including the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA). However, whether these pathways are differently involved in depressive-like behaviors following chronic stress in males and females is still unclear. Methods. We used chronic variable stress (CVS) to induce depressive-like behaviors in males and females and recorded electrophysiological measures in both projections. Chemogenetic was used to validate behavioral contribution of mPFC-NAc pathways to the expression of depressive-like behaviors. Finally, using RiboTag mice, we performed RNAseq to screen pathways specific transcriptional profiles. Results. CVS in females increases the frequency of sEPSCs in NAc and VTA projecting neurons. In males, CVS raises the frequency of sEPSCs only in VTA projecting mPFC neurons. These functional changes were accompanied by sex-specific morphological alterations. We showed that the chemogenetic activation of mPFC-NAc pathway increases stress susceptibility in both sexes while the inhibition of this pathway reverses stress-induced behavioral deficits in females only. Finally, our analysis revealed pathway-specific transcriptional alterations in males and females induced by CVS. Conclusion. Our results suggest that chronic stress impacts the corticoaccumbal and corticotegmental pathways differently through sex-specific morphofunctional alterations in mPFC neurons.

Sex-specific cellular and molecular adaptations to chronic stress in the corticoaccumbal and corticotegmental pathways

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PS-1-C -  Disorders of the Nervous System

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Colleagues and Friends:

I am very happy to welcome you to the 14th annual Canadian Neuroscience Meeting, and to the first virtual edition of our meeting. I want to highlight the important work the CAN meeting chair, **Roger Thompson** and co-chair, **Alyson Fournier**, did to put together the great program we are offering this year. Moving to a virtual format required a complete re-design of the program, and both Roger and Alyson did a splendid job in providing us with an appealing and well adapted program for our first virtual event. I wish to thank them for this very important effort.

Highlights of this year’s scientific meeting include invited speakers **Michael Hausser, Franck Polleux, Gwyneth Card, Magdalena Götz**and Brain Prize winner **Huda Zoghbi**. Plenary and parallel symposia, proposed by our members complete our diverse [scientific program.](https://can-acn.org/meeting-2021/program-2021/)

The 2021 Advocacy session, chaired and organized by CAN advocacy committee chair **Karun Singh**, will feature a special lecture and question period with Member of Parliament and past Science Minister **Kirsty Duncan**. This will be followed by a short overview of CAN’s advocacy activities over the last year. We invite you to participate in this session for insight from Dr. Duncan on the workings of Parliament Hill, and to learn more about what CAN has been doing to promote neuroscience research in Canada.

We are also excited to host **Lisa Willis** in the Equity Diversity and Inclusion session, organized by EDI committee chair **Jibran Khokhar**.

A special highlight of our meeting will be the lectures by award-winning young neuroscientists. We are please to host the CAN 2020 Young Investigator Award winner **Mihaela Iordanova**, and CAN 2021 Young Investigator Award winners **Aaron Phillips** and **Tabrez Siddiqui**. Highlights will also include presentation by the top three winners of the CAN-CIHR-INMHA Brain Star Award winners, **Claire Gizowski, Nuria Daviu Abant** and **Lukas Tamayo-Orrego**.

Independently organized satellite symposia complement and complete this exciting program, check them out here: https://can-acn.org/meeting-2021/2021-satellite-symposia/

Some of the most engaging sessions are always the poster sessions featuring the work of our trainees, so make sure to log in to Gather Town during the poster sessions to chat with the presenters.
We hope you enjoy this program, and look forward to welcoming you, virtually.

Shernaz Bamji

President of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience

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Thibault Bittar

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Sex-specific cellular and molecular adaptations to chronic stress in the corticoaccumbal and corticotegmental pathways

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