Prefrontal Cortical Projection Neurons: Involvement in Shaping Different Types of Behaviors, BDNF Expression and Transport

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a key role in cognitive plasticity and is involved in various processes of higher nervous activity. At the same time, studying the processes underlying various types of behavior, in which PFC neurons are involved, is a nontrivial task. The associative functions of the PFC are attributed to the patterns of connectivity between this structure and other brain regions, which, according to recent data, appear to be much more complex than previously thought. Thus, it is clear that the axons of PFC projection neurons have numerous collaterals that project to a large number of different targets in the brain. In this review, we summarize recent results in studying the connectivity of PFC neurons using state-of-the-art methods for analyzing neuronal projections and single-cell transcriptomes. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an important role in the function of these neurons and their projection targets. We discuss recent results on mapping BDNF-expressing projection neurons in the PFC and BDNF axonal transport to the structures where it is not locally expressed, also highlighting Bdnf gene expression and potential role in the pathogenesis of mental disorders.