| First Author | Park G | Year | 2024 |
| Journal | Curr Biol | Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 15 | Pages | 3473-3487.e6 |
| PubMed ID | 39067450 | Mgi Jnum | J:359386 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:7710681 | Doi | 10.1016/j.cub.2024.06.068 |
| Citation | Park G, et al. (2024) Neurotensin-specific corticothalamic circuit regulates innate response conflict. Curr Biol 34(15):3473-3487.e6 |
| abstractText | Animals must simultaneously select and balance multiple action contingencies in ambiguous situations: for instance, evading danger during feeding. This has rarely been examined in the context of information selection; despite corticothalamic pathways that mediate sensory attention being relatively well characterized, neural mechanisms filtering conflicting actions remain unclear. Here, we develop a new loom/feed test to observe conflict between naturally induced fear and feeding and identify a novel anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) output to the ventral anterior and ventral lateral thalamus (VA/VL) that adjusts selectivity between these innate actions. Using micro-endoscopy and fiber photometry, we reveal that activity in corticofugal outputs was lowered during unbalanced/singularly occupied periods, as were the resulting decreased thalamic initiation-related signals for less-favored actions, suggesting that the integration of ACC-thalamic firing may directly regulate the output of behavior choices. Accordingly, the optoinhibition of ACC-VA/VL circuits induced high bias toward feeding at the expense of defense. To identify upstream "commander" cortical cells gating this output, we established dual-order tracing (DOT)-translating ribosome affinity purification (TRAP)-a scheme to label upstream neurons with transcriptome analysis-and found a novel population of neurotensin-positive interneurons (ACC(Nts)). The photoexcitation of ACC(Nts) cells indeed caused similarly hyper-selective behaviors. Collectively, this new "corticofugal action filter" scheme suggests that communication in multi-step cingulate circuits may critically influence the summation of motor signals in thalamic outputs, regulating bias between innate action types. |
