In humans and rodents, the perception of control during stressful events has lasting behavioral consequences. These consequences are apparent even in situations that are distinct from the stress context, but how the brain links prior stressful experience to subsequent behaviors remains poorly understood. By assessing innate defensive behavior in a looming-shadow task, we show that the initiation of an escape response is preceded by an increase in the activity of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) neurons in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus (CRHPVN neurons). This anticipatory increase is sensitive to stressful stimuli that have high or low levels of outcome control. Specifically, experimental stress with high outcome control increases CRHPVN neuron anticipatory activity, which increases escape behavior in an unrelated context. By contrast, stress with no outcome control prevents the emergence of this anticipatory activity and decreases subsequent escape behavior. These observations indicate that CRHPVN neurons encode stress controllability and contribute to shifts between active and passive innate defensive strategies.

中文翻译：

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脑室旁核CRH神经元编码压力可控性并调节防御行为的选择。

在人类和啮齿动物中，在压力事件中对控制的感知会产生持久的行为后果。即使在与压力环境截然不同的情况下，这些后果也很明显，但是人们对大脑如何将先前的压力经历与随后的行为联系起来仍然知之甚少。通过评估迫在眉睫的阴影任务中的先天防御行为，我们表明逃避反应的启动是下丘脑室旁核（PVN）中促肾上腺皮质激素释放激素（CRH）神经元活性的增加（CRHPVN神经元）。这种预期的增加对具有高或低水平结果控制水平的压力刺激敏感。具体来说，具有高结果控制能力的实验压力会增加CRHPVN神经元的预期活性，在不相关的情况下会增加逃生行为。相比之下，没有结果控制的压力会阻止这种预期活动的出现，并减少随后的逃避行为。这些观察结果表明CRHPVN神经元编码压力可控性，并有助于主动和被动先天防御策略之间的转换。