Topic: zona incerta

Animals swiftly react to environmental stimuli, with the involvement of the superior colliculus (SC). While the SC is playing a pivotal role in coordinating innate behaviors such as coordinating orientation and defense responses, its involvement in the somatosensory system remains relatively unexplored. Our recent research has unveiled the connectivity between mouse whisker-circuits and the SC, including pathways from the motor cortex (MC), barrel field of S1 (BC), and brainstem (Bs). Mapping the whisker-sensitive region of the SC in mice revealed a novel trans-collicular connectivity motif, w

Beyond the renowned roles in motivation regulation, recent wave of studies has revealed that the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra (SN) are also involved in regulating defensive behaviors. More recently, the zona incerta (ZI), an overlooked midbrain downstream and functionally mysterious inhibitory nucleus, has been reported to play a role in modulating defensive behaviors. Despite that the ventral midbrain sends projection to the ZI, the neurochemical phenotypes of cells involved in the connection remain poorly understood.Thus we employed retrograde and anterograde tracing app

Recent studies have shown that the zona incerta (ZI) plays a key role in modulating defensive behaviors. Accumulation of evidence in the lab has revealed that stress or potential threat engages substantia nigra-to-zona incerta (SN-to-ZI) input to promote defensive behavior. Nevertheless, how the SN-to-ZI input recruits its downstream regions to regulate defensive behavior remains unclear. To address this question, we examine the functional recruitment of SN-to-ZI input by combining excitatory optogenetic manipulation with neural activity marker c-Fos staining to map involved downstream brain r

The zona incerta (ZI) is a subthalamic region in the brain, which comprises loosely packed albeit mixed population of several neurons. However, an in-depth understanding of anatomical connections of neurons emerging from and /or projecting to the ZI, and the functional implications, remains elusive. The ZI has recently gathered considerable interest because of its role in primal survival-associated instincts, like appetitive drive, hunting, food intake and fear generalization. We therefore aimed to identify and characterize the neuronal subpopulations, which may be involved in emotional and me