Dendritic integration in a midbrain circuit controlling innate escape responses

• Applicant: Dr. Vanessa Stempel
• Subject Area: Molecular Biology and Physiology of Neurons and Glial Cells ; Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 336922744

In order to survive, animals must constantly monitor their environment, integrate external and internal information and engage in appropriate behavioural responses. For example, when threatened by a predator, the imminence and context of the danger directs the execution of defensive behaviours such as escape, freezing or attack. The computations that control instinctive behavioural choices are highly conserved across animal species, but little is known about how they are implemented at the cellular level. In this project, we will investigate how the decision to escape from innate predatory threats is computed by neurons in the periaqueductal gray (PAG), which remain poorly understood despite being a key area involved in the execution of defensive behaviours. Employing a combination of behavioural, neurophysiological and advanced molecular biological techniques, in the first part of this study we will examine the basic properties of neurons in the PAG circuit, and aim to determine the dendritic, synaptic and molecular basis of synaptic integration processes that link predatory threats to the execution of flight responses. In the second part of the project, we will test whether neuronal circuits controlling innate behaviours are genetically hard-wired or whether information processing in the PAG can be modulated through experience and learning. This project will contribute to the understanding of how the single neurons in a key midbrain circuit compute and convert incoming sensory information of a predatory threat into a critical survival behaviour.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Host: Dr. Tiago Branco, Ph.D.