Department of Neuroscience, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT, 06030, USA.
Department of Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medicine, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Nat Commun. 2020 Oct 8;11(1):5076. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18893-9.
Proper threat-reward decision-making is critical to animal survival. Emerging evidence indicates that the motor system may participate in decision-making but the neural circuit and molecular bases for these functions are little known. We found in C. elegans that GABAergic motor neurons (D-MNs) bias toward the reward behavior in threat-reward decision-making by retrogradely inhibiting a pair of premotor command interneurons, AVA, that control cholinergic motor neurons in the avoidance neural circuit. This function of D-MNs is mediated by a specific ionotropic GABA receptor (UNC-49) in AVA, and depends on electrical coupling between the two AVA interneurons. Our results suggest that AVA are hub neurons where sensory inputs from threat and reward sensory modalities and motor information from D-MNs are integrated. This study demonstrates at single-neuron resolution how motor neurons may help shape threat-reward choice behaviors through interacting with other neurons.
正确的威胁-奖励决策对于动物的生存至关重要。新出现的证据表明，运动系统可能参与决策过程，但对于这些功能的神经回路和分子基础知之甚少。我们在秀丽隐杆线虫中发现，γ-氨基丁酸能运动神经元（D-MNs）通过逆行抑制一对控制回避神经回路中胆碱能运动神经元的前运动命令中间神经元 AVA，偏向于威胁-奖励决策中的奖励行为。D-MNs 的这种功能是通过 AVA 中的特定离子型 GABA 受体（UNC-49）介导的，并且依赖于两个 AVA 中间神经元之间的电耦合。我们的研究结果表明，AVA 是中枢神经元，其中来自威胁和奖励感觉模态的感觉输入以及来自 D-MNs 的运动信息被整合在一起。这项研究以单神经元分辨率证明了运动神经元如何通过与其他神经元相互作用来帮助塑造威胁-奖励选择行为。
