Coordination of Escape and Spatial Navigation Circuits Orchestrate Versatile Flight from Threats. Neuron. 109(11):1848-1860
Escape is an instinctive defensive behavior that are evolved to avoid harm from predators and other threats in the environment. Animals that fail to escape from imminent threats will suffer reduced fitness, catastrophically in case of death.
Our research establishes the dorsal premammillary nucleus of the hypothalamus (PMd) as a critical node that communicates with thalamic and midbrain regions to coordinate diverse escape strategies. PMd can project to the dorsolateral periaqueductal gray (dlPAG) and the anteromedial thalamic nucleus (amv). By using optogenetic, chemogenetic and miniaturized microscope methods, we show that exposing mice to imminent threat, such as predator or heat, activates both the PMd-dlPAG and PMd-amv pathways, resulting in coordinated navigation-assisted escape. The panic-inducing agent CO2 activates only the PMd-dlPAG pathway, which elicits panic jumps.
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