Differential contribution of distinct neuronal populations to danger representations

Abstract

The recognition of specific stimuli and contexts in dangerous situations determines the expression of behaviors needed to appropriately cope with each threatening encounter. Moreover, the detection of common features shared by different dangerous situations allows eliciting general brain states and is necessary for both the expression of preparatory reactions and adaptive behavioral responses in a timely manner. However, it is unknown how general and specific danger representations emerge from the combined activity of different neuronal populations to elicit the expression of adaptive defensive responses. Using a behavioral paradigm that exposes mice to multiple threatening situations and calcium imaging recordings in freely moving mice, we investigated the role of different dmPFC neuronal populations in the generation of general and specific neuronal representations. Our results suggest that the population of somatostatin positive (SST+) interneurons generates specific representations while those arising from parvalbumin positive (PV+) interneurons are mainly unspecific. Together, this data suggests the presence of distinct information in different dmPFC neurons allowing a collective encoding of both general and specific danger representations.