{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,24]],"date-time":"2026-08-24T06:19:46Z","timestamp":1787552386365,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,24]],"date-time":"2026-08-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787529600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Neural Circuits"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Interoceptive signals reflecting internal bodily states influence emotional processing. The paraventricular thalamus (PVT) constitutes a key node within the interoceptive network, monitoring circulating humoral factors in the ventricles, and is thus considered to link interoceptive signals to emotion-related behaviors. Here, we demonstrate that the vagus nerve (VN), a principal afferent pathway for interoceptive signaling, also affects PVT neuronal activity in mice. Left vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) induced pronounced c-Fos expression in PVT neurons and elicited transient increases and decreases in neuronal spike rates across all PVT subregions. These VNS-responsive neuronal populations were distinct from those exhibiting transient-to-sustained delayed responses following lipopolysaccharide injection after vagotomy, which selectively activates VN-independent pathways, including humoral factors. VNS-responsive PVT neurons projected to limbic structures and modulated anxiety-like behavior. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that PVT neuronal populations integrate and relay interoceptive signals across multiple pathways and timescales, thereby playing a pivotal role in linking vagus nerve-related bodily states to emotional responses.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fncir.2026.1865790","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,24]],"date-time":"2026-08-24T05:31:46Z","timestamp":1787549506000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Paraventricular thalamic neurons respond to vagus nerve activation and modulate anxious behavior"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"20","author":[{"given":"Ziyan","family":"Xie","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University","place":["Sendai, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Musashi","family":"Yamakawa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University","place":["Sendai, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tasuku","family":"Kayama","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University","place":["Sendai, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Takuya","family":"Sasaki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University","place":["Sendai, Japan"]},{"name":"Department of Neuropharmacology, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University","place":["Sendai, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nahoko","family":"Kuga","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University","place":["Sendai, Japan"]},{"name":"Creative Interdisciplinary Research Division, Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Tohoku University","place":["Sendai, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"309","DOI":"10.1111\/ner.13528","article-title":"A comprehensive review of Vagus nerve stimulation for depression","volume":"25","author":"Austelle","year":"2022","journal-title":"Neuromodulation"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"969","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuron.2016.04.015","article-title":"Circuit-wide transcriptional profiling reveals brain region-specific gene networks regulating depression susceptibility","volume":"90","author":"Bagot","year":"2016","journal-title":"Neuron"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"598469","DOI":"10.3389\/fnbeh.2020.598469","article-title":"The paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus is an important node in the emotional processing network","volume":"14","author":"Barson","year":"2020","journal-title":"Front. 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