Developmentally distinct architectures in top-down circuits

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a key role in learning, mood and decision making, including in how individuals respond to threats1-6. mPFC undergoes a uniquely protracted development, with changes in synapse density, cortical thickness, long-range connectivity, and neuronal encoding properties continuing into early adulthood7-21. Models suggest that before adulthood, the slow-developing mPFC cannot adequately regulate activity in faster-developing subcortical centers22,23. They propose that during development, the enhanced influence of subcortical systems underlies distinctive behavioural strategies of juveniles and adolescents and that increasing mPFC control over subcortical structures eventually allows adult behaviours to emerge. Yet it has remained unclear how a progressive strengthening of top-down control can lead to nonlinear changes in behaviour as individuals mature24,25. To address this discrepancy, here we monitored and manipulated activity in the developing brain as animals responded to threats, establishing direct causal links between frontolimbic circuit activity and the behavioural strategies of juvenile, adolescent and adult mice. Rather than a linear strengthening of mPFC synaptic connectivity progressively regulating behaviour, we uncovered multiple developmental switches in the behavioural roles of mPFC circuits targeting the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and nucleus accumbens (NAc). We show these changes are accompanied by axonal pruning coinciding with functional strengthening of synaptic connectivity in the mPFC-BLA and mPFC-NAc pathways, which mature at different rates. Our results reveal how developing mPFC circuits pass through distinct architectures that may make them optimally adapted to the demands of age-specific challenges.