Author
Listed:
- Xiaorui R. Xiong
(Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California)
- Feixue Liang
(Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University)
- Brian Zingg
(Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California)
- Xu-ying Ji
(Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University)
- Leena A. Ibrahim
(Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California)
- Huizhong W. Tao
(Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California)
- Li I. Zhang
(Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California)
Abstract
Defense against environmental threats is essential for animal survival. However, the neural circuits responsible for transforming unconditioned sensory stimuli and generating defensive behaviours remain largely unclear. Here, we show that corticofugal neurons in the auditory cortex (ACx) targeting the inferior colliculus (IC) mediate an innate, sound-induced flight behaviour. Optogenetic activation of these neurons, or their projection terminals in the IC, is sufficient for initiating flight responses, while the inhibition of these projections reduces sound-induced flight responses. Corticocollicular axons monosynaptically innervate neurons in the cortex of the IC (ICx), and optogenetic activation of the projections from the ICx to the dorsal periaqueductal gray is sufficient for provoking flight behaviours. Our results suggest that ACx can both amplify innate acoustic-motor responses and directly drive flight behaviours in the absence of sound input through corticocollicular projections to ICx. Such corticofugal control may be a general feature of innate defense circuits across sensory modalities.
Suggested Citation
Xiaorui R. Xiong & Feixue Liang & Brian Zingg & Xu-ying Ji & Leena A. Ibrahim & Huizhong W. Tao & Li I. Zhang, 2015.
"Auditory cortex controls sound-driven innate defense behaviour through corticofugal projections to inferior colliculus,"
Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-12, November.
Handle:
RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms8224
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8224
Download full text from publisher
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms8224. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.