Dissociable control of unconditioned responses and associative fear learning by parabrachial CGRP neurons
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington, United States
- Seattle Children's Research Institute, United States
- University of Washington, United States
Abstract
Parabrachial CGRP neurons receive diverse threat-related signals and contribute to multiple phases of adaptive threat responses in mice, with their inactivation attenuating both unconditioned behavioral responses to somatic pain and fear-memory formation. Because CGRPPBN neurons respond broadly to multi-modal threats, it remains unknown how these distinct adaptive processes are individually engaged. We show that while three partially separable subsets of CGRPPBN neurons broadly collateralize to their respective downstream partners, individual projections accomplish distinct functions: hypothalamic and extended amygdalar projections elicit assorted unconditioned threat responses including autonomic arousal, anxiety, and freezing behavior, while thalamic and basal forebrain projections generate freezing behavior and, unexpectedly, contribute to associative fear learning. Moreover, the unconditioned responses generated by individual projections are complementary, with simultaneous activation of multiple sites driving profound freezing behavior and bradycardia that are not elicited by any individual projection. This semi-parallel, scalable connectivity schema likely contributes to flexible control of threat responses in unpredictable environments.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files.
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Dissociabe control of unconditioned responses and associative fear learning by parabrachial CGRP neuronsDryad Digital Repository, doi:10.5061/dryad.rn8pk0p7k.
Article and author information
Author details
Richard D Palmiter
Funding
National Institutes of Health (T32NS099578)
- Anna J Bowen
National Institutes of Health (R01-DA24908)
- Richard D Palmiter
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: This study was performed in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. All of the animals were handled according to approved institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) protocols (#2183-02) of the University of Washington. All surgery was performed under isoflurane anesthesia, and every effort was made to minimize suffering.
Copyright
© 2020, Bowen 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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Dissociable control of unconditioned responses and associative fear learning by parabrachial CGRP neurons
eLife 9:e59799.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59799
