Dendritic integration in a midbrain circuit controlling innate escape responses

为了生存，动物必须不断地监测它们的环境，整合外部和内部信息，并做出适当的行为反应。例如，当受到捕食者的威胁时，危险的迫切性和背景指导着防御行为的执行，如逃跑、冻结或攻击。控制本能行为选择的计算在动物物种中是高度保守的，但人们对它们在细胞水平上是如何实现的知之甚少。在这个项目中，我们将研究如何从先天的掠食性威胁中逃脱的决定是由导水管周围灰质（PAG）的神经元计算的，尽管PAG是执行防御行为的关键区域，但对它的了解仍然很少。结合行为学、神经生理学和先进的分子生物学技术，在本研究的第一部分，我们将研究PAG回路中神经元的基本特性，并旨在确定将掠夺性威胁与飞行反应的执行联系起来的突触整合过程的树突、突触和分子基础。在项目的第二部分，我们将测试控制先天行为的神经回路是遗传硬连线还是PAG中的信息处理可以通过经验和学习来调节。该项目将有助于理解关键中脑回路中的单个神经元如何计算并将来自掠食性威胁的传入感官信息转换为关键的生存行为。

In order to survive, animals must constantly monitor their environment, integrate external and internal information and engage in appropriate behavioural responses. For example, when threatened by a predator, the imminence and context of the danger directs the execution of defensive behaviours such as escape, freezing or attack. The computations that control instinctive behavioural choices are highly conserved across animal species, but little is known about how they are implemented at the cellular level. In this project, we will investigate how the decision to escape from innate predatory threats is computed by neurons in the periaqueductal gray (PAG), which remain poorly understood despite being a key area involved in the execution of defensive behaviours. Employing a combination of behavioural, neurophysiological and advanced molecular biological techniques, in the first part of this study we will examine the basic properties of neurons in the PAG circuit, and aim to determine the dendritic, synaptic and molecular basis of synaptic integration processes that link predatory threats to the execution of flight responses. In the second part of the project, we will test whether neuronal circuits controlling innate behaviours are genetically hard-wired or whether information processing in the PAG can be modulated through experience and learning. This project will contribute to the understanding of how the single neurons in a key midbrain circuit compute and convert incoming sensory information of a predatory threat into a critical survival behaviour.