Prefrontal circuits encode both general danger and specific threat representations.
Nat Neurosci
; 26(12): 2147-2157, 2023 Dec.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37904042
ABSTRACT
Behavioral adaptation to potential threats requires both a global representation of danger to prepare the organism to react in a timely manner but also the identification of specific threatening situations to select the appropriate behavioral responses. The prefrontal cortex is known to control threat-related behaviors, yet it is unknown whether it encodes global defensive states and/or the identity of specific threatening encounters. Using a new behavioral paradigm that exposes mice to different threatening situations, we show that the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) encodes a general representation of danger while simultaneously encoding a specific neuronal representation of each threat. Importantly, the global representation of danger persisted in error trials that instead lacked specific threat identity representations. Consistently, optogenetic prefrontal inhibition impaired overall behavioral performance and discrimination of different threatening situations without any bias toward active or passive behaviors. Together, these data indicate that the prefrontal cortex encodes both a global representation of danger and specific representations of threat identity to control the selection of defensive behaviors.
Texto completo:
1
Bases de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Córtex Pré-Frontal
/
Neurônios
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Nat Neurosci
Assunto da revista:
NEUROLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2023
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
França