Neural mechanisms of the medial preoptic area in exploration

Abstract

For animals to survive, they must explore for necessary targets and environments. However, studies on the exploration itself and the neural circuit-based research on the effect of the exploration are poorly studied. This thesis aims to identify the neuron and neural circuits of the medial preoptic area (MPA) involved in exploratory behavior. I distinguished the exploration by the locomotion of exploration and change of preference without reinforcing effect combining optogenetics. The vgat neurons of MPA involved innate exploration. In addition, I study the effect of the exploration on fear extinction by stimulating the MPA-vPAG circuits involved in the object exploration and the MPA-induced drive-assisted steering (MIDAS) system, as previously revealed.