Peptide signaling in the paraventricular thalamus is essential for disrupted adult reward behaviors consequent to early-life adversity.

CRHR1 signaling in PVT neurons activated by early-life adversity is essential for sex-specific disruptions of adult reward behaviors, with deletion normalizing these behaviors in mice.

• Why it matters: Understanding how early-life experiences cause lasting, sex-specific changes in brain function is crucial for developing targeted treatments for emotional disorders linked to childhood adversity.
• What they did: The study used activity-dependent genetic labeling, translating ribosome affinity purification, and CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to examine gene translation programs and manipulate Crhr1 expression in PVT neurons of both sexes in mice subjected to early-life adversity.
• The result: Deleting Crhr1 in early-life-activated PVT neurons normalized reward behaviors in adult mice of both sexes, suggesting CRHR1 signaling as a potential therapeutic target for ELA-induced reward disruptions.