Cerebellum controls timing of periaqueductal grey encoding of fear memory and expression of fear conditioned behaviour

The pivotal role of the periaqueductal grey (PAG) in fear learning is reinforced by the identification of neurons in rat ventral PAG (vPAG) that encode fear memory through signalling the onset and offset of an auditory conditioned stimulus during presentation of the unreinforced conditioned tone during retrieval. Some units only display CS+ onset or offset responses and the two signals differ in extinction sensitivity, suggesting they are independent of each other. In addition, understanding cerebellar contributions to survival circuits is advanced by the discovery that: (i) reversible inactivation of the medial cerebellar nucleus (MCN) during fear consolidation leads in subsequent retrieval to: (a) disruption of the temporal precision of vPAG offset, but not onset responses to the unreinforced conditioned tone, and (b) an increase in duration of freezing behaviour. And (ii) chemogenetic manipulation of the MCN-vPAG projection during fear acquisition: (a) reduces the occurrence of fear- related ultrasonic vocalisations and (b) during subsequent retrieval, slows the extinction rate of fear- related freezing. These findings show that the cerebellum is part of the survival network that regulates fear memory processes at multiple timescales and in multiple ways; raising the possibility that dysfunctional interactions in the cerebellar-survival network may underlie fear-related disorders and comorbidities. Impact StatementCerebellar-periaqueductal grey interactions contribute to fear conditioned processes and, as such, provide a novel target for treating psychological conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder.