Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 29, 2025
11:13
Ex Vivo Optogenetic Dissection of Fear Circuits in Brain Slices
Published on: April 5, 2016
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Overwriting an instinct: Visual cortex instructs learning to suppress fear responses.
Sara Mederos1, Patty Blakely1, Nicole Vissers1
1Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, University College London, London, UK.
Science (New York, N.Y.)
|February 6, 2025
Summary
Animals can learn to suppress innate fear responses by adapting their behavior. This study reveals the neural pathways and cellular mechanisms in the brain that enable this crucial form of adaptive learning.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Behavioral Biology
- Learning and Memory
Background:
- Fast, instinctive responses are vital for survival but can be maladaptive.
- The neural circuits enabling animals to suppress innate reactions are not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To elucidate the neural pathways and mechanisms underlying the learned suppression of innate fear responses to visual threats.
Main Methods:
- Investigated the role of posterolateral higher visual areas (plHVAs) and the ventrolateral geniculate nucleus (vLGN) in suppressing escape behaviors.
- Examined neural plasticity and synaptic changes during the learning process.
Main Results:
- Posterolateral higher visual areas (plHVAs) are essential for learning to suppress innate escape responses.
- Learned suppression relies on plasticity within ventrolateral geniculate nucleus (vLGN) populations, which inhibit escape.
- Endocannabinoid signaling mediates long-term synaptic changes in vLGN neurons, enhancing threat responses during learning.
Conclusions:
- Identified a top-down pathway from plHVAs to vLGN critical for adaptive fear response suppression.
- Revealed specific cellular and synaptic mechanisms, including endocannabinoid-mediated plasticity, that underlie experience-dependent fear learning.
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