A cross-modality enhancement of defensive flight via parvalbumin neurons in zona incerta
Abstract
The ability to adjust defensive behavior is critical for animal survival in dynamic environments. However, neural circuits underlying the modulation of innate defensive behavior remain not well-understood. In particular, environmental threats are commonly associated with cues of multiple sensory modalities. It remains to be investigated how these modalities interact to shape defense behavior. In this study, we report that auditory-induced defensive flight can be facilitated by somatosensory input in mice. This cross-modality modulation of defensive behavior is mediated by the projection from the primary somatosensory cortex (SSp) to the ventral sector of zona incerta (ZIv). Parvalbumin-positive neurons in ZIv, receiving direct input from SSp, mediate the enhancement of the flight behavior via their projections to the medial posterior complex of thalamus (POm). Thus, defensive flight behavior can be enhanced in a somatosensory context-dependent manner via recruiting PV neurons in ZIv, which may be important for increasing survival of prey animals.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. The data for each figure have been provided as source data files and the code used for data analysis can be found at https://github.com/xiaolinchou/flight-speed-calculation.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institutes of Health (EY019049)
- Huizhong W Tao
Karl Kirchgessner Foundation
- Huizhong W Tao
National Institutes of Health (EY022478)
- Huizhong W Tao
National Institutes of Health (R01DC008983)
- Li I Zhang
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All experimental procedures used in this study were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of Southern California under the protocol 20719.
Copyright
© 2019, Wang et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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