• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Chemistry

Scientists identify a novel neural circuit mediating visually evoked innate defensive responses

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
June 12, 2019
in Chemistry
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

IMAGE

Credit: LIU Xuemei

Fear overgeneralization (i.e., deficits in the discrimination of safety and threat) is an important pathological characteristic of anxiety-related syndromes such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder.

However, unlike traditional conditioned fear, the mechanism of processing innate fear is largely unknown.

Prof. WANG Liping and his colleagues ZHOU Zheng and LIU Xuemei at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences revealed that the VTA (ventral tegmental area) GABAergic neural circuit mediates visually evoked innate defensive responses.

In this study, the research group identified for the first time a neural circuit related to the VTAGABA+ neurons that mediates visually evoked innate defensive responses, involving the SC Glut+_ VTAGABA+_ CeA (central nucleus of the amygdala) pathway.

It has been confirmed by neuroscientists that the VTA plays an important role in learned appetitive and aversive behaviors. Interestingly, the researchers revealed that the GABA neurons in VTA were activated by visual threats by fiber photometry. Through viral tracing and both in vivo and in vitro electrophysiological recordings, they showed that VTAGABA+ neurons received direct excitatory inputs from the superior colliculus (SC).

The researchers revealed that VTAGABA+ neurons mediated looming-evoked innate defensive behaviors. These findings demonstrated that SC glutamatergic inputs activated VTAGABA+ neurons and mediated looming-evoked innate defensive behaviors. They further showed that CeA was a downstream target of the SC-VTA GABAergic pathway and it was involved in innate defensive behavior.

This study provides new insights into potential mechanisms of survival across species, as well as the maladaptive behavior in fear- and anxiety-related mental disorders.

The team has been working on the dissection of the neural circuits mediating instinctive emotions for years. In their previous work, they have resolved a novel brain circuit controlling visually evoked innate freezing behaviors via the SC-LP-LA subcortical pathway. They also had pioneering work which first reported that the accelerated innate defensive response to visual threats induced by stress is mediated by the Locus Coeruleus (LC) directed TH+ projections to the SC. The current study published in Neuron is another key milestone in their systematic work.

###

Media Contact
ZHANG Xiaomin
[email protected]

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2019.05.027

Tags: BiologyBiomedical/Environmental/Chemical EngineeringDepression/AngerneurobiologyNeurochemistryStress/Anxiety
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Urban Air Harbors Pathogenic Yeast Strains Absent from Coastal Areas

Urban Air Harbors Pathogenic Yeast Strains Absent from Coastal Areas

October 1, 2025
Dual Dynamic Helical Poly(disulfide)s: Adaptive, Recyclable Polymers

Dual Dynamic Helical Poly(disulfide)s: Adaptive, Recyclable Polymers

October 1, 2025

Atom-photon entanglement breakthrough opens new horizons for future quantum networks

September 30, 2025

Charting the Cosmos Made Simpler

September 30, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    89 shares
    Share 36 Tweet 22
  • Physicists Develop Visible Time Crystal for the First Time

    74 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19
  • How Donor Human Milk Storage Impacts Gut Health in Preemies

    62 shares
    Share 25 Tweet 16
  • Scientists Discover and Synthesize Active Compound in Magic Mushrooms Again

    57 shares
    Share 23 Tweet 14

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Elevated Maternal Testosterone Alters Offspring Brain, Behavior

GSTM3: A New Target in Advanced Prostate Cancer

NYU Grossman School of Medicine Leader Honored with 2025 Research Achievement Award

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Success! An email was just sent to confirm your subscription. Please find the email now and click 'Confirm' to start subscribing.

Join 60 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.