美国斯坦福大学Karl Deisseroth团队发现多个汇聚的下丘脑-脑干环路驱动防御行为。这一研究成果于2020年发6月22日表在国际学术期刊《自然-神经科学》杂志上。
他们通过研究在应对各种稳态威胁的防御反应时，斑马鱼下丘脑中多个神经元种群的功能来解释神经元肽能及其功能之间的关系。大规模的神经活动成像向多重原位基因表达的细胞配准，揭示编码行为特征的神经元群体包括神经肽能细胞类型的多个重叠组。对不同细胞群体的操纵表明，通过谷氨酸共释放和汇聚输出至脑干中的脊髓投射前运动神经元，多组肽能神经元在这种快速时程行为中发挥相似的行为作用。
他们的发现表明，稳态威胁会在多个下丘脑细胞群中募集神经元，从而共同驱动强大的防御行为。
据了解，下丘脑由许多神经肽能细胞群组成，并指导多种生存行为，包括对威胁的防御反应。然而，神经元的肽能特征与其在行为中的作用之间的关系仍不清楚。
附：英文原文
Title: Multiple convergent hypothalamus–brainstem circuits drive defensive behavior
Author: Matthew Lovett-Barron, Ritchie Chen, Susanna Bradbury, Aaron S. Andalman, Mahendra Wagle, Su Guo, Karl Deisseroth
Issue&Volume: 2020-06-22
Abstract: The hypothalamus is composed of many neuropeptidergic cell populations and directs multiple survival behaviors, including defensive responses to threats. However, the relationship between the peptidergic identity of neurons and their roles in behavior remains unclear. Here, we address this issue by studying the function of multiple neuronal populations in the zebrafish hypothalamus during defensive responses to a variety of homeostatic threats. Cellular registration of large-scale neural activity imaging to multiplexed in situ gene expression revealed that neuronal populations encoding behavioral features encompass multiple overlapping sets of neuropeptidergic cell classes. Manipulations of different cell populations showed that multiple sets of peptidergic neurons play similar behavioral roles in this fast-timescale behavior through glutamate co-release and convergent output to spinal-projecting premotor neurons in the brainstem. Our findings demonstrate that homeostatic threats recruit neurons across multiple hypothalamic cell populations, which cooperatively drive robust defensive behaviors. Lovett-Barron et al. register in situ gene expression to cellular-level neural dynamics in behaving zebrafish and find threat-selective populations spanning multiple hypothalamic peptidergic neuron classes, which converge on brainstem defensive action premotor neurons.
DOI: 10.1038/s41593-020-0655-1
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-020-0655-1
Nature Neuroscience：《自然—神经科学》，创刊于1998年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：28.771
官方网址：https://www.nature.com/neuro/
投稿链接：https://mts-nn.nature.com/cgi-bin/main.plex
本期文章：《自然—神经科学》：Online/在线发表
