ArticleScientific reports2017
A translational study on looming-evoked defensive response and the underlying subcortical pathway in autism.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neurovascular coupling in the basolateral amygdala modulates negative emotions.Cell research · 2026Article
- Visual function and autism spectrum disorder.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Review
- Dorsal Raphe VIP Neurons Are Critical for Survival-Oriented Vigilance.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Noradrenergic inputs to the basolateral amygdala have bidirectional effects on coping behavior and neuronal activity in mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Anterior cingulate cortex parvalbumin and somatostatin interneurons shape social behavior in male mice.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Reduced Attentional Capture by Topological Changes in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Evidence for a Perceptual Deficit.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2025Article
- GABAergic Retinal Ganglion Cells Projecting to the Superior Colliculus Mediate the Looming-Evoked Flight Response.Neuroscience bulletin · 2024Article
- Article
- A Non-canonical Excitatory PV RGC-PV SC Visual Pathway for Mediating the Looming-evoked Innate Defensive Response.Neuroscience bulletin · 2024Article
- Oscillatory biomarkers of autism: evidence from the innate visual fear evoking paradigm.Cognitive neurodynamics · 2023Article
- The Superior Colliculus: Cell Types, Connectivity, and Behavior.Neuroscience bulletin · 2022Review
- Formation of the Looming-evoked Innate Defensive Response during Postnatal Development in Mice.Neuroscience bulletin · 2022Article
- The "Primitive Brain Dysfunction" Theory of Autism: The Superior Colliculus Role.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2022Article
- The Impaired Subcortical Pathway From Superior Colliculus to the Amygdala in Boys With Autism Spectrum Disorder.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2022Article
- Response Processes to Looming Appetitive and Aversive Cues in Euthymic Bipolar Patients and Their First-Degree Relatives: An Exploratory Study.Indian journal of psychological medicine · 2021Article
- The influence of subcortical shortcuts on disordered sensory and cognitive processing.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2020Review
- Paraventricular nucleus CRH neurons encode stress controllability and regulate defensive behavior selection.Nature neuroscience · 2020Article
- An afferent white matter pathway from the pulvinar to the amygdala facilitates fear recognition.eLife · 2019Article
- Investigating the Subcortical Route to the Amygdala Across Species and in Disordered Fear Responses.Journal of experimental neuroscience · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Rapidly approaching objects indicating threats can induce defensive response through activating a subcortical pathway comprising superior colliculus (SC), lateral posterior nucleus (LP), and basolateral amygdala (BLA). Abnormal defensive response has been reported in autism, and impaired synaptic connections could be the underlying mechanism. Whether the SC-LP-BLA pathway processes looming stimuli abnormally in autism is not clear. Here, we found that looming-evoked defensive response is impaired in a subgroup of the valproic acid (VPA) mouse model of autism. By combining the conventional neurotracer and transneuronal rabies virus tracing techniques, we demonstrated that synaptic connections in the SC-LP-BLA pathway were abnormal in VPA mice whose looming-evoked defensive responses were absent. Importantly, we further translated the finding to children with autism and observed that they did not present looming-evoked defensive response. Furthermore, the findings of the DTI with the probabilistic tractography showed that the structural connections of SC-pulvinar-amygdala in autism children were weak. The pulvinar is parallel to the LP in a mouse. Because looming-evoked defensive response is innate in humans and emerges much earlier than do social and language functions, the absence of defensive response could be an earlier sign of autism in children.
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