Prefrontal circuits encode both general danger and specific threat representations

Martin-Fernandez M(1)(2), Menegolla AP(3)(4), Lopez-Fernandez G(3)(4), Winke N(3)(4), Jercog D(3)(4), Kim HR(3)(4), Girard D(3)(4), Dejean C(3)(4), Herry C(5)(6).

Author information:
(1)Université de Bordeaux, Neurocentre Magendie, U1215, Bordeaux, France. .
(2)INSERM, Neurocentre Magendie, U1215, Bordeaux, France.
.
(3)Université de Bordeaux, Neurocentre Magendie, U1215, Bordeaux, France.
(4)INSERM, Neurocentre Magendie, U1215, Bordeaux, France.
(5)Université de Bordeaux, Neurocentre Magendie, U1215, Bordeaux, France. .
(6)INSERM, Neurocentre Magendie, U1215, Bordeaux, France. .

Behavioral adaptation to potential threats requires both a global representation
of danger to prepare the organism to react in a timely manner but also the
identification of specific threatening situations to select the appropriate
behavioral responses. The prefrontal cortex is known to control threat-related
behaviors, yet it is unknown whether it encodes global defensive states and/or
the identity of specific threatening encounters. Using a new behavioral paradigm
that exposes mice to different threatening situations, we show that the
dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) encodes a general representation of danger
while simultaneously encoding a specific neuronal representation of each threat.
Importantly, the global representation of danger persisted in error trials that
instead lacked specific threat identity representations. Consistently,
optogenetic prefrontal inhibition impaired overall behavioral performance and
discrimination of different threatening situations without any bias toward
active or passive behaviors. Together, these data indicate that the prefrontal
cortex encodes both a global representation of danger and specific
representations of threat identity to control the selection of defensive
behaviors.

© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature America, Inc.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-023-01472-8
PMID: 37904042

Auteurs Bordeaux Neurocampus