A VTA GABAergic Neural Circuit Mediates Visually Evoked Innate Defensive Responses
Name
493007.full.pdf
Description
Submitted version
Size
4.05 MB
Format
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Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Zhou, Zheng
Liu, Xuemei
Chen, Shanping
Zhang, Zhijian
Liu, Yuanming
Montardy, Quentin
Tang, Yongqiang
Wei, Pengfei
Liu, Nan
Li, Lei
Date Issued
June 2019
Journal
Neuron
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Citation
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.
Version
Original manuscript
Abstract
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.
MIT Department
McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2019.05.027
