Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 348, Issue 6242, Pages 1472-1477Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa8694
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Thousand Young Talents Program of China
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The fear responses to environmental threats play a fundamental role in survival. Little is known about the neural circuits specifically processing threat-relevant sensory information in the mammalian brain. We identified parvalbumin-positive (PV+) excitatory projection neurons in mouse superior colliculus (SC) as a key neuronal subtype for detecting looming objects and triggering fear responses. These neurons, distributed predominantly in the superficial SC, divergently projected to different brain areas, including the parabigeminal nucleus (PBGN), an intermediate station leading to the amygdala. Activation of the PV+ SC-PBGN pathway triggered fear responses, induced conditioned aversion, and caused depression-related behaviors. Approximately 20% of mice subjected to the fear-conditioning paradigm developed a generalized fear memory.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available