Anatomically distributed neural representations of instincts in the hypothalamus.
bioRxiv
; 2023 Dec 07.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38045312
ABSTRACT
Artificial activation of anatomically localized, genetically defined hypothalamic neuron populations is known to trigger distinct innate behaviors, suggesting a hypothalamic nucleus-centered organization of behavior control. To assess whether the encoding of behavior is similarly anatomically confined, we performed simultaneous neuron recordings across twenty hypothalamic regions in freely moving animals. Here we show that distinct but anatomically distributed neuron ensembles encode the social and fear behavior classes, primarily through mixed selectivity. While behavior class-encoding ensembles were spatially distributed, individual ensembles exhibited strong localization bias. Encoding models identified that behavior actions, but not motion-related variables, explained a large fraction of hypothalamic neuron activity variance. These results identify unexpected complexity in the hypothalamic encoding of instincts and provide a foundation for understanding the role of distributed neural representations in the expression of behaviors driven by hardwired circuits.
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1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
BioRxiv
Año:
2023
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos