Synaptic integration in the periaqueductal grey circuit of defensive behaviour

• Applicant: Dr. Sabine Rühle
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology ; Sensory and Behavioural Biology ; Molecular Biology and Physiology of Neurons and Glial Cells
• Term: from 2014 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 259603355

• Final Report Year: 2017

Final Report Abstract

The results of this project will help to understand neural circuits and mechanisms that process sensory information to output defensive flight. The SC and PAG form a basic module for computing escape, with VGLUT2+ neurons in the dorsomedial SC accumulating evidence of threat which dorsal PAG neurons threshold to evoke an all-or-nothing escape response. Preliminary results suggest the PAG as one of the interfaces where information on the feeding status from the hypothalamus is integrated into threat-level information processing and how defensive behaviours are adjusted according to the internal state to ensure the decision is adapted to optimize survival.

Publications

• Ultrafast tissue staining with chemical tags. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2014;111(36):E3805-14
  Kohl J, Ng J, Cachero S, Ciabatti E, Dolan MJ, Sutcliffe B, Tozer A, Ruehle S, Krueger D, Frechter S, Branco T, Tripodi M, Jefferis GS
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1411087111)