A Signaled Locomotor Avoidance Action Is Fully Represented in the Neural Activity of the Midbrain Tegmentum.

ABSTRACT: Animals, including humans, readily learn to avoid harmful and threatening situations by moving in response to cues that predict the threat (e.g., fire alarm, traffic light). During a negatively reinforced sensory-guided locomotor action, known as signaled active avoidance, animals learn to avoid a harmful unconditioned stimulus (US) by moving away when signaled by a harmless conditioned stimulus (CS) that predicts the threat. CaMKII-expressing neurons in the pedunculopontine tegmentum area (PPT) of the midbrain locomotor region have been shown to play a critical role in the expression of this learned behavior, but the activity of these neurons during learned behavior is unknown. Using calcium imaging fiber photometry in freely behaving mice, we show that PPT neurons sharply activate during

SUBMITTER: Hormigo S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8143194 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature