title: BRAIN CIRCUITS. A parvalbumin-positive excitatory visual pathway to trigger fear responses in mice.
abstract: The fear responses to environmental threats play a fundamental role in survival. Little is known about the neural circuits specifically processing threat-relevant sensory information in the mammalian brain. We identified parvalbumin-positive (PV(+)) excitatory projection neurons in mouse superior colliculus (SC) as a key neuronal subtype for detecting looming objects and triggering fear responses. These neurons, distributed predominantly in the superficial SC, divergently projected to different brain areas, including the parabigeminal nucleus (PBGN), an intermediate station leading to the amygdala. Activation of the PV(+) SC-PBGN pathway triggered fear responses, induced conditioned aversion, and caused depression-related behaviors. Approximately 20% of mice subjected to the fear-conditioning paradigm developed a generalized fear memory.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Congping
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Zhihui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Zijun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Yingchao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Su
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Dapeng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. pcao@ibp.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cao
mesh_terms: D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D009474:Neurons / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D010320:Parvalbumins / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D013477:Superior Colliculi / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D010320:Parvalbumins