Congratulations to Annie Ly and team for their manuscript investigating the role of BNST GABA neurons in changes in foraging behavior in response to robotic or innate threat.
Annie adapted a robotic threat foraging paradigm from rats to mice. After that, she introduced a robotic threat or live predator threat while BNST GABA neurons were inhibited. Then she examined how these mice foraged in the subsequent absence of threat. Both threats impeded ongoing foraging. However, live predator threat impeded foraging in the subsequent absence of threat more than the robotic threat. Further, the changes in foraging behavior were blocked by previous inhibition of BNST GABA neurons during live predator threat, but not robotic threat. These results suggest BNST GABA neurons play a role in developing a hypervigilant state in response to a previous highly threatening situation.
See the pre-print here, now in peer review.
