Circuits That Mediate Expression of Signaled Active Avoidance Converge in the Pedunculopontine Tegmentum.

ABSTRACT: An innocuous sensory stimulus that reliably signals an upcoming aversive event can be conditioned to elicit locomotion to a safe location before the aversive outcome ensues. The neural circuits that mediate the expression of this signaled locomotor action, known as signaled active avoidance, have not been identified. While exploring sensorimotor midbrain circuits in mice of either sex, we found that excitation of GABAergic cells in the substantia nigra pars reticulata blocks signaled active avoidance by inhibiting cells in the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPT), not by inhibiting cells in the superior colliculus or thalamus. Direct inhibition of putative-glutamatergic PPT cells, excitation of GABAergic PPT cells, or excitation of GABAergic afferents in PPT, abolish signaled active av

SUBMITTER: Hormigo S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6554632 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature