{"id":213973,"date":"2025-05-14T06:27:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T11:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/distinct-neuron-populations-in-the-hypothalamus-encode-states-associated-with-predator-related-threats"},"modified":"2025-05-14T06:27:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T11:27:20","slug":"distinct-neuron-populations-in-the-hypothalamus-encode-states-associated-with-predator-related-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/distinct-neuron-populations-in-the-hypothalamus-encode-states-associated-with-predator-related-threats","title":{"rendered":"Distinct neuron populations in the hypothalamus encode states associated with predator-related threats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/distinct-neuron-populations-in-the-hypothalamus-encode-states-associated-with-predator-related-threats2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The ability to detect imminent threats and execute behaviors aimed at protecting oneself, such as hiding, running away or defending oneself, is central to the survival of most animal species. A region of the mammalian brain known to play a key role in threat response is the hypothalamus, which also regulates the release of hormones and other vital bodily functions.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Howard Hughes Medical Institute recently carried out a study aimed at better understanding how a specific group of neurons in the <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/mouse\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">mouse<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/ventromedial+hypothalamus\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">ventromedial hypothalamus<\/a> dorsomedial subdivision (VMHdm), which are identified by the presence of the steroidogenic factor 1 (SF1) gene, contribute to the coding of predator imminence.<\/p>\n<p>Their findings, <a href=\"https:\/\/linkinghub.elsevier.com\/retrieve\/pii\/S0896627325001163\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Neuron<\/i>, show that distinct subsets of VMHdm<sup>SF1<\/sup> neurons encode multiple internal states that are evoked by the imminence of predators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ability to detect imminent threats and execute behaviors aimed at protecting oneself, such as hiding, running away or defending oneself, is central to the survival of most animal species. A region of the mammalian brain known to play a key role in threat response is the hypothalamus, which also regulates the release of hormones [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}