Context-dependent reshaping of defensive responses to predators in head-fixed and freely moving mice
Year: 2025
Type: preprint
Abstract: Behavioral responses to threat — such as fleeing, freezing, or fighting—can be innate, learned, and strongly shaped by context or competing goals. Here, we asked whether exposure to an ecologically relevant predator obligatorily elicits canonical defensive behaviors across behavioral contexts. We examined predator responses in mice across four experimental conditions: one novel head-fixed reward-driven foraging task and three established paradigms in freely moving animals. In the head-fixed condition, water-deprived mice were trained to walk on a treadmill controlling a virtual environment and water reward delivery and were subsequently exposed to a live rat positioned above the lick spout. Despite the presence of the predator, most mice (5 of 7) maintained foraging performance at baseline levels. However, individual mice exhibited significant, coordinated changes in running speed, pupil diameter, eye movements, and posture, indicating engagement with the threat. To assess how context influences predator responses, we exposed 36 naïve, freely moving mice to fear-inducing stimuli, including looming visual cues, rat odor, and a live rat. Even under these conditions, defensive behaviors were variable: only a subset of mice displayed avoidance or escape, and when presented with a freely moving rat, approximately half of the mice avoided the predator. Together, these findings show that predator threat does not elicit a uniform or obligatory defensive repertoire in mice. Instead, defensive responses are expressed flexibly, and are shaped by environmental constraints, task demands, and individual variability. These results challenge the assumption that innate fear behaviors are automatically triggered by predator encounters. Graphical Abstract Using a head-fixed, reward-based foraging task and complementary freely moving paradigms, we show that mouse responses to predator-related stimuli are variable and context dependent, with limited expression of canonical defensive behaviors such as freezing or flight.
Authors: Marti Ritter, Lara Mariel Chirich Barreira, Lara Sach, Aileen Hakus, Sanra Kumsal Öktem, Ronny Bergmann, Anne Voigt, Dietmar Schmitz, Panayiota Poirazi, Matthew E. Larkum, Robert N. S. Sachdev
Language: English
Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1129793973, G122987265, G2364000600, G2707994935, G3160699921, SFB 1315: Mechanismen und Störungen der Gedächtniskonsolidierung: Von Synapsen zur Systemebene, Human Brain Project Specific Grant Agreement 1, G4236712713, G434337789, Prospektive Kodierung bei kortikalen Pyramidenzellen, Zellulaere Mechanismen der Gedaechtniskonsolidierung, Human Brain Project Specific Grant Agreement 2, G6105822073, G6542926802, Dendritische Dynamik und die Wahrnehmungsschwelle, G8580271377, Human Brain Project Specific Grant Agreement 3
OpenAlex ID: W4411286929