Newton Jessica R, Ellsworth Charlene, Miyakawa Tsuyoshi, Tonegawa Susumu, Sur Mriganka
The Picower Center for Learning & Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Nat Neurosci. 2004 Sep;7(9):968-73. doi: 10.1038/nn1306. Epub 2004 Aug 22.
Defensive responses elicited by sensory experiences are critical for survival. Mice acquire a conditioned fear response rapidly to an auditory cue but slowly to a visual cue, a difference in learned behavior that is likely to be mediated by direct projections to the lateral amygdala from the auditory thalamus but mainly indirect ones from the visual thalamus. Here, we show that acquisition of visually cued conditioned fear is accelerated in 'rewired' mice that have retinal projections routed to the auditory thalamus. Visual stimuli induce expression of the immediate early gene Fos (also known as c-fos) in the auditory thalamus and the lateral amygdala in rewired mice, similar to the way auditory stimuli do in control mice. Thus, the rewired auditory pathway conveys visual information and mediates rapid activity-dependent plasticity in central structures that influence learned behavior.
由感官体验引发的防御反应对生存至关重要。小鼠对听觉线索能迅速习得条件性恐惧反应,但对视觉线索的反应则较慢,这种学习行为上的差异可能是由听觉丘脑向外侧杏仁核的直接投射介导的,而视觉丘脑的投射主要是间接的。在这里,我们表明,在视网膜投射被重新定向到听觉丘脑的“重新布线”小鼠中,视觉线索诱发的条件性恐惧的习得速度加快。视觉刺激在重新布线的小鼠的听觉丘脑和外侧杏仁核中诱导即刻早期基因Fos(也称为c-fos)的表达,类似于听觉刺激在对照小鼠中的作用方式。因此,重新布线的听觉通路传递视觉信息,并在影响学习行为的中枢结构中介导快速的活动依赖性可塑性。