• Denghui Liu, Shouhao Li, Liqing Ren, Xiaoyuan Li, and Zhenlong Wang.
• School of Electric Engineering, Zhengzhou University, 450001 Zhengzhou, China; Henan Key Laboratory of Brain Science and Brain-Computer Interface Technology, Zhengzhou University, 450001 Zhengzhou, China. Electronic address: liuyaoru0623@163.com.
• Neuroscience. 2022 Aug 1; 496: 230-240.

AbstractAnimals perceive threat information mainly from vision, and the subcortical visual pathway plays a critical role in the rapid processing of fear visual information. The superior colliculus (SC) and lateral posterior (LP) nuclei of the thalamus are key components of the subcortical visual pathway; however, how animals encode and transmit fear visual information is unclear. To evaluate the response characteristics of neurons in SC and LP thalamic nuclei under fear visual stimuli, extracellular action potentials (spikes) and local field potential (LFP) signals were recorded under looming and dimming visual stimuli. The results showed that both SC and LP thalamic nuclei were strongly responsive to looming visual stimuli but not sensitive to dimming visual stimuli. Under the looming visual stimulus, the theta (θ) frequency bands of both nuclei showed obvious oscillations, which markedly enhanced the synchronization between neurons. The functional network characteristics also indicated that the network connection density and information transmission efficiency were higher under fear visual stimuli. These findings suggest that both SC and LP thalamic nuclei can effectively identify threatening fear visual information and rapidly transmit it between nuclei through the θ frequency band. This discovery can provide a basis for subsequent coding and decoding studies in the subcortical visual pathways.Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

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