Role of the dorsal premammillary nucleus and its main targets in the expression of innate defensive responses and the acquisition of contextual fear memory during social defeat

• Grant number: 14/26742-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: June 01, 2015
• End date: May 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Physiology of Organs and Systems
• Principal Investigator: Newton Sabino Canteras
• Grantee: Miguel José Rangel Junior
• Supervisor: Ivan E. de Araujo
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Yale University, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/13804-8 - Role of anterior thalamus and its cortical targets in conditioned defensive behavior to the social defeat context, BP.DR

Abstract

The dorsal premammillary nucleus (PMd) represents one of the most mobilized sites during social agonistic encounters and provides strong projections to the dorsal part of the periaqueductal gray (dPAG) and the ventral part of the anteromedial thalamic nucleus (AMv). In the present study, we plan to study the role of the PMd and its main targets (i.e., dPAG and AMv) in the innate and contextual responses to social threats. To this end, we shall inactivate pharmacogenetically the PMd, or either one of its target (i.e., the dPAG and AMv) during the exposure to an aggressor conspecific, and examine their putative roles in the innate defensive responses and in the acquisition of contextual responses to social threats. We expect that by inactivating the PMd both the expression of innate responses and the acquisition of contextual fear should be blocked, we also expect that the inactivation of the dPAG would block only the expression of innate responses, but not the acquisition of contextual responses, and by inactivating the AMv we would block the acquisition of contextual responses, but not the expression of innate responses. Our aim is to clarify how critical nodes in the circuitry involved in social defeat would influence innate fear responses and the acquisition of contextual fear memory. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

HAN, WENFEI; TELLEZ, LUIS A.; RANGEL, JR., MIGUEL J.; MOTTA, SIMONE C.; ZHANG, XIAOBING; PEREZ, ISAAC O.; CANTERAS, NEWTON S.; SHAMMAH-LAGNADO, SARA J.; VAN DEN POL, ANTHONY N.; DE ARAUJO, IVAN E.. Integrated Control of Predatory Hunting by the Central Nucleus of the Amygdala. Cell, v. 168, n. 1-2, p. 311+, JAN 12 2017. (14/26742-6, 12/24679-0)