Therefore,
Study mouse reveals brain change:
The researchers identified a key neural switch which controls if animals instinctively flee a threat. Meanwhile, a frost in place. In addition, By comparing two closely related deer species. In addition, they found that this switch is calibrated by evolution to correspond to the habitat of the animal. Therefore, This neural circuit is hypersensitive in mice living in densely vegetated environments. For example, causing an instant escape, but less reactive in their free field cousins, which are more likely to freeze. In addition, In doing so, the research team has revealed an important way of which the evolution displays the brain to survive.
Flee or freeze? – Study mouse reveals brain change
In the wild. Therefore, survival depends on the right fraction of choice when the danger strikes, and the defensive circuits of the brain study mouse reveals brain change are built for exactly this task. However. For example, what matters as the “good” answer depends on the landscape: in congested woods, the rapid flight in the undergrowth can save your life; On the exposed meadows, the immobile hiding place buys time. Furthermore, How does evolution resolve this puzzle?
In a new study published in NatureAn international research team from Belgium. the United States has discovered an elegant mechanism which, by refining the sensitivity of a danger-answer center in the brain, adapts behavior to each environment without rethinking the whole system.
MICE FOREST VS MOUSE in free field – Study mouse reveals brain change
When a shadow of a potential predator is looming above the head. the forest mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) rush for the cover, while their cousins in the open field (Peromyscus polesotus) Cyez in place. Additionally, The researchers decided to locate the brain switch which defines these opposite instincts.
study mouse reveals brain change
To precisely measure the exhaust behavior. we presented the two types of mouse with stimuli that looked like an air predator in a controlled environment. We found that the free field mice required about double the intensity of the stimulus to trigger the escape from their forest parents. indicating a substantial difference in the way they treated the threat stimulus. “”
Felix Baier, co-prime author and part of the Harvard research team
A brain switch
Using peak neural recordings with neuropixel probes and handling techniques, the researchers have drawn these behavioral differences to a central command center for escape actions: Dorsal periaquéductal (DPAG), a group of neurons deeply in the brain. Furthermore, “We were surprised to note that the evolution acted in a central region of the brain. downstream of peripheral sensory perception, because for evolution to change a behavior, we have study mouse reveals brain change often thought that the simplest and most effective means would be to simply change sensory entries,” explains Baier.
The two species perceive the imminent threat in an identical way as evidenced by the comparable answers along the. circuit of the eye to the DPAG when the animals saw the stimulus without reacting to it. However, the activation of the DPAG differs considerably in the event that the mice escaped the threat.
“Our surveillance of neural activity has revealed a striking contrast: among the mice of forest deer. escaping from a potential threat in the sky is activated by an instant” run “command in the DPAG, while the DPAG of its open cousin does not send such commandments. Co-Pré-Prime Author. former postdoc in the Nerf (part of the IMEC, Ku Leuven and VIB), now leading its own group in Sissa, Italy.
In addition. using advanced methods that allow scientists to activate study mouse reveals brain change or silence specific brain regions, the team has demonstrated a causal connection. DPAG artificial stimulating neurons in forest mice have made them escape even in the absence of a threat. Conversely. using chemical methods to mitigate DPAG activity increased their escape threshold, which makes their behavior more like that of their cousins.
Integrated flexibility
The study highlights not only the light on the way in which instinctive behaviors such as frost. flight are controlled, but also emphasizes the flexibility of the internal architecture of the brain, explain the main authors of Professor Karl Farrow (IMEC, Ku Leuven, VIB) and Professor Hopi Hoekstra (Harvard).
Farrow: “By comparing these two related species. we discovered a switch that balances frost in relation to theft, showing how natural selection refined behavior without reclassifying the senses. »»
Hoekstra: “Our new discovery illustrates a principle of fundamental evolution: natural selection often modifies study mouse reveals brain change existing neural circuits rather. than building entirely new paths. »»
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