Stress and Rapid Defensive Behaviors

韩明虎 深圳理工大学生命健康学院

BIO：深圳理工大学生命健康学院讲席教授，精神健康与公共卫生系主任，美国神经精神药理学院(ACNP)和国际神经精神药理学院(CINP)  会士(Fellow)，曾任西奈山伊坎医学院药理科学系和神经科学系终身教授。长期从事情感障碍等神经精神疾病的研究，其研究聚焦长期压力应激诱导抑郁症的易感性(susceptibility)和韧性(resilience)的神经机制探索，发现促进韧性的主动调节机制，鉴定了抑郁症治疗的新药靶点KCNQ钾离子通道（亦称Kv7），目前相关研究已完成二期临床试验。已发表论文110多篇，其中20余篇发表在Cell, Science, Nature, Nature Neuroscience和Nature Communications等学术期刊，研究工作的总引用量超过18900多次(Google Scholar)。曾获美国精神分裂症和抑郁症研究联盟 (NARSAD) 青年科学家奖，NARSAD独立科学家奖，国际脑健康研究组织(IMHRO)转化医学研究科学之星奖等。

报告简介：

Animals inhabiting natural environments are perpetually exposed to predator threats, rendering context-appropriate defensive responses essential for survival. The threat imminence continuum theory indicates that animals take different defensive behaviors based on the degree of threat proximity. We demonstrate that anterior hypothalamic thalamus nucleus (AHN) glutamatergic neurons are involved in both visual looming-induced freezing and flight responses. Stimulation of AHN glutamatergic neurons elicits dimorphic defensive behaviors, featured by initial freezing behavior followed by a fight reaction. We further identified two functionally distinct subpopulations of these glutamatergic neurons within AHN. The caudal subpopulation projects to brain region mediates freezing responses for risk assessment under low proximity contexts during the “circa-strike” phase, while rostral subpopulation projects to region mediates flight responses in high proximity contexts of the “circa-strike” phase. These results elucidate the neural circuitry basis by which animals adopt context-appropriate defensive strategies in response to varying levels of threat imminence in nature settings and clarify the critical and indispensable role of certain brain regions in orchestrating the full spectrum of innate defensive behaviors.

司马健 中国药科大学

BIO：教授，博士生导师。2019 年入职中国药科大学，入选“江苏特聘教授”、中国药科大学“药学拔尖创新人才培养计划”导师。2009 年博士毕业于中科院上海神经科学研究所；2009–2012 于国际制药企业 GSK 药物研发中心任职研发科学家，主持参与多项神经退行疾病相关药物研发项目，曾获 GSK FIRST 创新奖；2012–2018 于美国国立健康研究院（NIH）衰老研究所（NIA）从事博士后研究。曾以第一作者或通讯作者在 Nature Neuroscience、Development、PNAS、Theranostics、Cell & Bioscience 等知名期刊发表论文。