Divergent midbrain circuits orchestrate escape and freezing responses to looming stimuli in mice

Congping Shang, Zijun Chen, Aixue Liu, Yang Li, Jiajing Zhang, Baole Qu, Fei Yan, Yaning Zhang, Weixiu Liu, Zhihui Liu, Xiaofei Guo, Dapeng Li, Yi Wang and Peng Cao ()
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Congping Shang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zijun Chen: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Aixue Liu: National Institute of Biological Sciences
Yang Li: National Institute of Biological Sciences
Jiajing Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Baole Qu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Fei Yan: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yaning Zhang: Tsinghua University
Weixiu Liu: Tsinghua University
Zhihui Liu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xiaofei Guo: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Dapeng Li: National Institute of Biological Sciences
Yi Wang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Peng Cao: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Abstract Animals respond to environmental threats, e.g. looming visual stimuli, with innate defensive behaviors such as escape and freezing. The key neural circuits that participate in the generation of such dimorphic defensive behaviors remain unclear. Here we show that the dimorphic behavioral patterns triggered by looming visual stimuli are mediated by parvalbumin-positive (PV+) projection neurons in mouse superior colliculus (SC). Two distinct groups of SC PV+ neurons form divergent pathways to transmit threat-relevant visual signals to neurons in the parabigeminal nucleus (PBGN) and lateral posterior thalamic nucleus (LPTN). Activations of PV+ SC-PBGN and SC-LPTN pathways mimic the dimorphic defensive behaviors. The PBGN and LPTN neurons are co-activated by looming visual stimuli. Bilateral inactivation of either nucleus results in the defensive behavior dominated by the other nucleus. Together, these data suggest that the SC orchestrates dimorphic defensive behaviors through two separate tectofugal pathways that may have interactions.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03580-7

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