A VTA GABAergic Neural Circuit Mediates Visually Evoked Innate Defensive Responses
Innate defensive responses are essential for animal survival and are conserved across species. The ventral tegmental area (VTA) plays important roles in learned appetitive and aversive behaviors, but whether it plays a role in mediating or modulating innate defensive responses is currently unknown....
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier BV
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125704 |
| _version_ | 1826213306545733632 |
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| author | Zhou, Zheng Liu, Xuemei Chen, Shanping Zhang, Zhijian Liu, Yuanming Montardy, Quentin Tang, Yongqiang Wei, Pengfei Liu, Nan Li, Lei Song, Ru Lai, Juan He, Xiaobin Chen, Chen Bi, Guoqiang Feng, Guoping Xu, Fuqiang Wang, Liping |
| author2 | McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT |
| author_facet | McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT Zhou, Zheng Liu, Xuemei Chen, Shanping Zhang, Zhijian Liu, Yuanming Montardy, Quentin Tang, Yongqiang Wei, Pengfei Liu, Nan Li, Lei Song, Ru Lai, Juan He, Xiaobin Chen, Chen Bi, Guoqiang Feng, Guoping Xu, Fuqiang Wang, Liping |
| author_sort | Zhou, Zheng |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Innate defensive responses are essential for animal survival and are conserved across species. The ventral tegmental area (VTA) plays important roles in learned appetitive and aversive behaviors, but whether it plays a role in mediating or modulating innate defensive responses is currently unknown. We report that VTAGABA+ neurons respond to a looming stimulus. Inhibition of VTAGABA+ neurons reduced looming-evoked defensive flight behavior, and photoactivation of these neurons resulted in defense-like flight behavior. Using viral tracing and electrophysiological recordings, we show that VTAGABA+ neurons receive direct excitatory inputs from the superior colliculus (SC). Furthermore, we show that glutamatergic SC-VTA projections synapse onto VTAGABA+ neurons that project to the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) and that the CeA is involved in mediating the defensive behavior. Our findings demonstrate that aerial threat-related visual information is relayed to VTAGABA+ neurons mediating innate behavioral responses, suggesting a more general role of the VTA. Keywords: Ventral tegmental area; GABAergic neurons; innate fear; superior collic-55ulus; looming; defensive responses. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:46:59Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/125704 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:46:59Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Elsevier BV |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1257042022-09-29T16:06:51Z A VTA GABAergic Neural Circuit Mediates Visually Evoked Innate Defensive Responses Zhou, Zheng Liu, Xuemei Chen, Shanping Zhang, Zhijian Liu, Yuanming Montardy, Quentin Tang, Yongqiang Wei, Pengfei Liu, Nan Li, Lei Song, Ru Lai, Juan He, Xiaobin Chen, Chen Bi, Guoqiang Feng, Guoping Xu, Fuqiang Wang, Liping McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT Innate defensive responses are essential for animal survival and are conserved across species. The ventral tegmental area (VTA) plays important roles in learned appetitive and aversive behaviors, but whether it plays a role in mediating or modulating innate defensive responses is currently unknown. We report that VTAGABA+ neurons respond to a looming stimulus. Inhibition of VTAGABA+ neurons reduced looming-evoked defensive flight behavior, and photoactivation of these neurons resulted in defense-like flight behavior. Using viral tracing and electrophysiological recordings, we show that VTAGABA+ neurons receive direct excitatory inputs from the superior colliculus (SC). Furthermore, we show that glutamatergic SC-VTA projections synapse onto VTAGABA+ neurons that project to the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) and that the CeA is involved in mediating the defensive behavior. Our findings demonstrate that aerial threat-related visual information is relayed to VTAGABA+ neurons mediating innate behavioral responses, suggesting a more general role of the VTA. Keywords: Ventral tegmental area; GABAergic neurons; innate fear; superior collic-55ulus; looming; defensive responses. 2020-06-08T13:04:55Z 2020-06-08T13:04:55Z 2019-06 2019-03 2019-10-01T12:56:33Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0896-6273 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125704 Zhou, Zheng et al., "A VTA GABAergic Neural Circuit Mediates Visually Evoked Innate Defensive Responses." Neuron 103, 3 (August 2019): P473-488.e6 © 2019 Elsevier Inc. en https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2019.05.027 Neuron Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ application/pdf Elsevier BV bioRxiv |
| spellingShingle | Zhou, Zheng Liu, Xuemei Chen, Shanping Zhang, Zhijian Liu, Yuanming Montardy, Quentin Tang, Yongqiang Wei, Pengfei Liu, Nan Li, Lei Song, Ru Lai, Juan He, Xiaobin Chen, Chen Bi, Guoqiang Feng, Guoping Xu, Fuqiang Wang, Liping A VTA GABAergic Neural Circuit Mediates Visually Evoked Innate Defensive Responses |
| title | A VTA GABAergic Neural Circuit Mediates Visually Evoked Innate Defensive Responses |
| title_full | A VTA GABAergic Neural Circuit Mediates Visually Evoked Innate Defensive Responses |
| title_fullStr | A VTA GABAergic Neural Circuit Mediates Visually Evoked Innate Defensive Responses |
| title_full_unstemmed | A VTA GABAergic Neural Circuit Mediates Visually Evoked Innate Defensive Responses |
| title_short | A VTA GABAergic Neural Circuit Mediates Visually Evoked Innate Defensive Responses |
| title_sort | vta gabaergic neural circuit mediates visually evoked innate defensive responses |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125704 |
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