Division of Homeostatic Development, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, 38 Nishigonaka Myodaiji, Okazaki, Aichi, 444-8585, Japan.
J Physiol Sci. 2022 Mar 7;72(1):5. doi: 10.1186/s12576-022-00831-7.
Rodents demonstrate defensive behaviors such as fleeing or freezing upon recognizing a looming shadow above them. Although individuals' experiences in their habitat can modulate the defensive behavior phenotype, the effects of systematically manipulating the individual's visual experience on vision-guided defensive behaviors have not been studied. We aimed to describe the developmental process of defensive behaviors in response to visual threats and the effects of visual deprivation. We found that the probability of escape response occurrence increased 3 weeks postnatally, and then stabilized. When visual experience was perturbed by dark rearing from postnatal day (P) 21 for a week, the developmental increase in escape probability was clearly suppressed, while the freezing probability increased. Intriguingly, exposure to the looming stimuli at P28 reversed the suppression of escape response development at P35. These results clearly indicate that the development of defensive behaviors in response to looming stimuli is affected by an individual's sensory experience.
啮齿动物在识别出上方有即将出现的阴影时会表现出逃避或冻结等防御行为。尽管个体在其栖息地的经历可以调节防御行为表型，但系统地操纵个体的视觉体验对视觉引导的防御行为的影响尚未得到研究。我们旨在描述对视觉威胁的防御行为的发展过程，以及视觉剥夺的影响。我们发现，逃避反应发生的概率在出生后 3 周后增加，然后稳定下来。当从出生后第 21 天（P）开始通过黑暗饲养来干扰视觉体验一周时，逃避概率的发育性增加明显受到抑制，而冻结概率增加。有趣的是，在 P28 时暴露于逼近刺激物可逆转 P35 时逃避反应发育的抑制。这些结果清楚地表明，对逼近刺激的防御行为的发展受到个体感官体验的影响。
