title: A retinoraphe projection regulates serotonergic activity and looming-evoked defensive behaviour.
abstract: Animals promote their survival by avoiding rapidly approaching objects that indicate threats. In mice, looming-evoked defensive responses are triggered by the superior colliculus (SC) which receives direct retinal inputs. However, the specific neural circuits that begin in the retina and mediate this important behaviour remain unclear. Here we identify a subset of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) that controls mouse looming-evoked defensive responses through axonal collaterals to the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) and SC. Looming signals transmitted by DRN-projecting RGCs activate DRN GABAergic neurons that in turn inhibit serotoninergic neurons. Moreover, activation of DRN serotoninergic neurons reduces looming-evoked defensive behaviours. Thus, a dedicated population of RGCs signals rapidly approaching visual threats and their input to the DRN controls a serotonergic self-gating mechanism that regulates innate defensive responses. Our study provides new insights into how the DRN and SC work in concert to extract and translate visual threats into defensive behavioural responses.
authors.affiliation: Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration, Ministry of Education CNS Regeneration Collaborative Joint Laboratory, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.|Guangdong key Laboratory of Brain Function and Diseases, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China.
authors.forename: Tifei
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration, Ministry of Education CNS Regeneration Collaborative Joint Laboratory, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.|Guangdong key Laboratory of Brain Function and Diseases, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
authors.forename: Minjie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration, Ministry of Education CNS Regeneration Collaborative Joint Laboratory, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.|Guangdong key Laboratory of Brain Function and Diseases, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xi
authors.affiliation: Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration, Ministry of Education CNS Regeneration Collaborative Joint Laboratory, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.|Guangdong key Laboratory of Brain Function and Diseases, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.affiliation: Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration, Ministry of Education CNS Regeneration Collaborative Joint Laboratory, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.|Guangdong key Laboratory of Brain Function and Diseases, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
authors.forename: Zhikai
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration, Ministry of Education CNS Regeneration Collaborative Joint Laboratory, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.|Guangdong key Laboratory of Brain Function and Diseases, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
authors.forename: Jiajun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration, Ministry of Education CNS Regeneration Collaborative Joint Laboratory, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.|Guangdong key Laboratory of Brain Function and Diseases, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
authors.forename: Yushui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Fuqiang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Biological Sciences, Zhongguancun Life Science, Park 7 Science Park Road, Beijing 102206, China.
authors.forename: Minmin
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3535-6624
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68583, USA.
authors.forename: Patricia J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Sollars
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China.
authors.forename: Mingliang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pu
authors.affiliation: School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68583, USA.|Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198, USA.
authors.forename: Gary E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Pickard
authors.affiliation: Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration, Ministry of Education CNS Regeneration Collaborative Joint Laboratory, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.|Guangdong key Laboratory of Brain Function and Diseases, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.|Department of Ophthalmology and State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.|Co-innovation Center of Neuroregeneration, Nantong University, Nantong 226001, China.
authors.forename: Kwok-Fai
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: So
authors.affiliation: Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration, Ministry of Education CNS Regeneration Collaborative Joint Laboratory, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.|Guangdong key Laboratory of Brain Function and Diseases, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.|Co-innovation Center of Neuroregeneration, Nantong University, Nantong 226001, China.
authors.forename: Chaoran
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ren
mesh_terms: D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D065847:Dorsal Raphe Nucleus / Q000502:physiology*; D059330:GABAergic Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D010467:Perceptual Defense; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos / Q000378:metabolism; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D012701:Serotonin / Q000378:metabolism*; D013477:Superior Colliculi; D013788:Thalamus / Q000502:physiology; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos; D012701:Serotonin; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid