ReviewThe Journal of physiology2017
Top down control of spinal sensorimotor circuits essential for survival.
Review in The Journal of physiology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed.
- A shared speed encoding model for running and backing away behaviours in segregated neural circuits.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Behavioral phenotype analysis highlights sleep heterogeneity and brain cellular activations in a mouse model of PTSD.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Trans-Synaptic Virus Tracing Reveals Reciprocal Connections of the Interpeduncular Nucleus With the Mood, Exteroceptive, Interoceptive, and Motor Control Systems.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2025Article
- Projectome-based characterization of hypothalamic peptidergic neurons in male mice.Nature neuroscience · 2025Article
- Sex differences in contextual fear expression are associated with altered medial prefrontal cortex activity.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Multiple Posterior Insula Projections to the Brainstem Descending Pain Modulatory System.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Seven Tesla Evidence for Columnar and Rostral-Caudal Organization of the Human Periaqueductal Gray Response in the Absence of Threat: A Working Memory Study.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Control of defensive behavior by the nucleus of Darkschewitsch GABAergic neurons.National science review · 2024Article
- Neuroanatomy of the nociceptive system: From nociceptors to brain networks.International review of neurobiology · 2024Review
- Separation of Channels Subserving Approach and Avoidance/Escape at the Level of the Basal Ganglia and Related Brainstem Structures.Current neuropharmacology · 2024Review
- Cerebellar Prediction and Feeding Behaviour.Cerebellum (London, England) · 2023Review
- The Effect of Perioperative Auditory Stimulation with Music on Procedural Pain: A Narrative Review.Current pain and headache reports · 2023Review
- Bidirectional Modulation of Nociception by GlyT2eNeuro · 2023Article
- Neurocircuitry of Predatory Hunting.Neuroscience bulletin · 2023Review
- Fastigial nuclei surgical damage and focal midbrain disruption implicate PAG survival circuits in cerebellar mutism syndrome.Neuro-oncology · 2023Article
- Activation of the spinal and brainstem locomotor networks during free treadmill stepping in rats lacking dopamine transporter.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2023Article
- Cognitive and affective interaction with somatosensory afference in acupuncture-a specific brain response to compound stimulus.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2023Article
- An early midbrain sensorimotor pathway is involved in the timely initiation and direction of swimming in the hatchlingFrontiers in neural circuits · 2022Article
- The Mesencephalic Locomotor Region: Beyond Locomotor Control.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2022Review
- Tempo-spatial integration of nociceptive stimuli assessed via the nociceptive withdrawal reflex in healthy humans.Journal of neurophysiology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The ability to interact with challenging environments requires coordination of sensory and motor systems that underpin appropriate survival behaviours. All animals, including humans, use active and passive coping strategies to react to escapable or inescapable threats, respectively. Across species the neural pathways involved in survival behaviours are highly conserved and there is a consensus that knowledge of such pathways is a fundamental step towards understanding the neural circuits underpinning emotion in humans and treating anxiety or other prevalent emotional disorders. The midbrain periaqueductal grey (PAG) lies at the heart of the defence-arousal system and its integrity is paramount to the expression of survival behaviours. To date, studies of 'top down control' components of defence behaviours have focused largely on the sensory and autonomic consequences of PAG activation. In this context, effects on motor activity have received comparatively little attention, despite overwhelming evidence of a pivotal role for the PAG in coordinating motor responses essential to survival (e.g. such as freezing in response to fear). In this article we provide an overview of top down control of sensory functions from the PAG, including selective control of different modalities of sensory, including proprioceptive, information forwarded to a major supsraspinal motor control centre, the cerebellum. Next, evidence from our own and other laboratories of PAG control of motor outflow is also discussed. Finally, the integration of sensorimotor functions by the PAG is considered, as part of coordinated defence behaviours that prepare an animal to be ready and able to react to danger.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.