ArticleeLife2021
Dorsal periaqueductal gray ensembles represent approach and avoidance states.
Article in eLife, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Periaqueductal Gray Selectively Supports Reversal Learning During a Flexible Discrimination Task in Mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Neuropeptides as transmitters and regulators of the locus coeruleus noradrenergic system.Pharmacological reviews · 2025Review
- Prepronociceptin-Expressing Neurons in the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis Signal Escape Behavior.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- Short-term synaptic dynamics in the ventrolateral and dorsomedial periaqueductal gray.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Article
- The neurobiology of parenting and infant-evoked aggression.Physiological reviews · 2025Review
- Neural decoding and feature selection methods for closed-loop control of avoidance behavior.Journal of neural engineering · 2024Article
- A dual-pathway architecture enables chronic stress to disrupt agency and promote habit formation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Periaqueductal gray activates antipredatory neural responses in the amygdala of foraging rats.eLife · 2024Article
- Neural Decoding and Feature Selection Techniques for Closed-Loop Control of Defensive Behavior.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- The neurocomputational link between defensive cardiac states and approach-avoidance arbitration under threat.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Control of feeding by a bottom-up midbrain-subthalamic pathway.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Synchronized LFP rhythmicity in the social brain reflects the context of social encounters.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Freud's 1926 conjecture is confirmed: evidence from the dorsal periaqueductal gray in mice that human psychological defense against internal instinctual threat evolved from animal motor defense against external predatory threat.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Review
- A novel subdivision of the bed nucleus of stria terminalis in monkey, rat, and mouse brains.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2023Article
- Bed nucleus of the stria terminalis GABA neurons are necessary for changes in foraging behaviour following an innate threat.The European journal of neuroscience · 2023Article
- How Instructions, Learning, and Expectations Shape Pain and Neurobiological Responses.Annual review of neuroscience · 2023Review
- Learned Helplessness As a Potential Transdiagnostic Therapeutic Mechanism of Classic Psychedelics.Psychedelic medicine (New Rochelle, N.Y.) · 2023Review
- Article
- Orchestration of innate and conditioned defensive actions by the periaqueductal gray.Neuropharmacology · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Animals must balance needs to approach threats for risk assessment and to avoid danger. The dorsal periaqueductal gray (dPAG) controls defensive behaviors, but it is unknown how it represents states associated with threat approach and avoidance. We identified a dPAG threatavoidance ensemble in mice that showed higher activity farther from threats such as the open arms of the elevated plus maze and a predator. These cells were also more active during threat avoidance behaviors such as escape and freezing, even though these behaviors have antagonistic motor output. Conversely, the threat approach ensemble was more active during risk assessment behaviors and near threats. Furthermore, unsupervised methods showed that avoidance/approach states were encoded with shared activity patterns across threats. Lastly, the relative number of cells in each ensemble predicted threat avoidance across mice. Thus, dPAG ensembles dynamically encode threat approach and avoidance states, providing a flexible mechanism to balance risk assessment and danger avoidance.
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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.