Work

Light tunes long-term threat avoidance behavior in male mice

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Animals must constantly scan their environment for imminent threats to their safety. However, they must also integrate their past experiences across long timescales to assess the potential recurrence of new threats. Though visual inputs are critical for the detection of environmental danger, whether and how visual information shapes an animal's assessment of whether a new threat is likely to reappear in a given context is unknown. In this work, we developed a behavioral assessment of long-term threat avoidance behavior where animals will avoid a familiar location where they previously experienced a single threat exposure. This avoidance behavior is highly sensitive and lasts for multiple days. Intriguingly, we find that the melanopsin-expressing, intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells tune this behavior via a perihabenula-nucleus accumbens circuit distinct from canonical visual threat detection circuits in male mice. These findings define a long-term threat avoidance behavior that is shaped by a defined retinal cell type based on prior experience.

Source: Nature Communications

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-69564-0

Authors: Marcos L. Aranda, Eric Min, Lucy T. Liu, Anika E. Schipma, Hui Wang, Tiffany M. Schmidt

Institutions: Northwestern University, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health

Language: English

Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $6,990

Funder: National Institutes of Health