Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1525, USA.
Neuroscience Program, Korea University of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
Sci Adv. 2018 Apr 18;4(4):eaar7328. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aar7328. eCollection 2018 Apr.
Predation is considered a major selective pressure in the evolution of fear, but the neurophysiology of predator-induced fear is unknown. We simultaneously recorded lateral amygdala (LA) and prelimbic (PL) area neuronal activities as rats exited a safe nest to search for food in an open space before, during, and after encountering a "predator" robot programmed to surge from afar. Distinct populations of LA neurons transiently increased spiking as rats either advanced or fled the robot, whereas PL neurons showed longer-lasting spike trains that preceded and persisted beyond LA activity. Moreover, discrete LA-PL cell pairs displayed correlated firings only when the animals either approached or fled the robot. These results suggest a general fear function of the LA-PL circuit where the PL participates in the initial detection of potential threats, the LA signals the occurrence of real threats, and the dynamic LA-PL interaction optimizes defensive readiness for action.
捕食被认为是恐惧进化的主要选择压力，但捕食者引起的恐惧的神经生理学尚不清楚。我们同时记录了大鼠离开安全巢穴后在开阔空间中寻找食物时的外侧杏仁核 (LA) 和前额叶皮层 (PL) 区域神经元的活动，在此期间和之后，大鼠会遇到一个程序设计为从远处冲过来的“捕食者”机器人。当大鼠向前或逃离机器人时，LA 神经元的不同群体的尖峰活动会短暂增加，而 PL 神经元则表现出更长时间的尖峰活动，这些尖峰活动先于 LA 活动并持续到 LA 活动之后。此外，只有当动物接近或逃离机器人时，离散的 LA-PL 细胞对才会显示出相关的放电。这些结果表明 LA-PL 电路具有一般的恐惧功能，其中 PL 参与潜在威胁的初始检测，LA 信号表示真正威胁的发生，而动态的 LA-PL 相互作用则优化了行动的防御准备。
