Topic: Innate behaviours

Sensorimotor circuits have traditionally been studied using defined stimuli that map onto reproducible behavioural responses. However, the many features of a complex natural environment would inevitably drive multiple dedicated circuits, eliciting a combination of competing motor commands. To cope, sensorimotor transformations should be selectively modulated depending on the animal's goals and internal state. Here, we have developed a novel behavioural paradigm to study how the fruit fly processes competing visual stimuli to generate coherent behaviour. We exploit the fruit fly's optomotor res

Innate behaviours such as food intake, social interaction, and novel objects exploration meet multiple needs adaptively and sequentially, suggesting the existence of a hitherto elusive brain dynamics, encoding possible upcoming behaviours. Using electrophysiological neuronal recordings in freely-behaving mice, support vector machine classification and multicolor optogenetics, we show that during behavioural transitions, possible upcoming behaviours are encoded by behaviour-related phase signatures of neuronal populations in lateral hypothalamus (LH) that are active near beta oscillation (15-30

Stress is an adaptive mechanism that enables an optimal response to danger. However, chronic stress disrupts normal bodily functions and can lead to various disorders. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in the regulation of stress responses. One of the output targets of the mPFC is the lateral hypothalamus (LH), a brain region that regulates innate behaviours known to be affected by stress. In this work, we analysed effects of optogenetic stimulation of mPFC inputs to LH on innate behaviours in freely behaving mice exposed to different stressors.Optogenetic stimulation of mPFC pro