Corticostriatal control of defense behavior in mice induced by auditory looming cues

Zhong Li, Jin-Xing Wei, Guang-Wei Zhang, Junxiang J. Huang, Brian Zingg, Xiyue Wang, Huizhong W. Tao () and Li I. Zhang ()
Additional contact information
Zhong Li: University of Southern California
Jin-Xing Wei: University of Southern California
Guang-Wei Zhang: University of Southern California
Junxiang J. Huang: University of Southern California
Brian Zingg: University of Southern California
Xiyue Wang: University of Southern California
Huizhong W. Tao: University of Southern California
Li I. Zhang: University of Southern California

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Animals exhibit innate defense behaviors in response to approaching threats cued by the dynamics of sensory inputs of various modalities. The underlying neural circuits have been mostly studied in the visual system, but remain unclear for other modalities. Here, by utilizing sounds with increasing (vs. decreasing) loudness to mimic looming (vs. receding) objects, we find that looming sounds elicit stereotypical sequential defensive reactions: freezing followed by flight. Both behaviors require the activity of auditory cortex, in particular the sustained type of responses, but are differentially mediated by corticostriatal projections primarily innervating D2 neurons in the tail of the striatum and corticocollicular projections to the superior colliculus, respectively. The behavioral transition from freezing to flight can be attributed to the differential temporal dynamics of the striatal and collicular neurons in their responses to looming sound stimuli. Our results reveal an essential role of the striatum in the innate defense control.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21248-7 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-21248-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21248-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().