TY - JOUR

T1 - Pedunculopontine Chx10 + neurons control global motor arrest in mice.

AU - Goñi-Erro, Haizea

AU - Selvan, Raghavendra

AU - Caggiano, Vittorio

AU - Leiras, Roberto

AU - Kiehn, Ole

N1 - Author Correction: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-023-01422-4

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Arrest of ongoing movements is an integral part of executing motor programs. Behavioral arrest may happen upon termination of a variety of goal-directed movements or as a global motor arrest either in the context of fear or in response to salient environmental cues. The neuronal circuits that bridge with the executive motor circuits to implement a global motor arrest are poorly understood. We report the discovery that the activation of glutamatergic Chx10-derived neurons in the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) in mice arrests all ongoing movements while simultaneously causing apnea and bradycardia. This global motor arrest has a pause-and-play pattern with an instantaneous interruption of movement followed by a short-latency continuation from where it was paused. Mice naturally perform arrest bouts with the same combination of motor and autonomic features. The Chx10-PPN-evoked arrest is different to ventrolateral periaqueductal gray-induced freezing. Our study defines a motor command that induces a global motor arrest, which may be recruited in response to salient environmental cues to allow for a preparatory or arousal state, and identifies a locomotor-opposing role for rostrally biased glutamatergic neurons in the PPN.

AB - Arrest of ongoing movements is an integral part of executing motor programs. Behavioral arrest may happen upon termination of a variety of goal-directed movements or as a global motor arrest either in the context of fear or in response to salient environmental cues. The neuronal circuits that bridge with the executive motor circuits to implement a global motor arrest are poorly understood. We report the discovery that the activation of glutamatergic Chx10-derived neurons in the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) in mice arrests all ongoing movements while simultaneously causing apnea and bradycardia. This global motor arrest has a pause-and-play pattern with an instantaneous interruption of movement followed by a short-latency continuation from where it was paused. Mice naturally perform arrest bouts with the same combination of motor and autonomic features. The Chx10-PPN-evoked arrest is different to ventrolateral periaqueductal gray-induced freezing. Our study defines a motor command that induces a global motor arrest, which may be recruited in response to salient environmental cues to allow for a preparatory or arousal state, and identifies a locomotor-opposing role for rostrally biased glutamatergic neurons in the PPN.

U2 - 10.1038/s41593-023-01396-3

DO - 10.1038/s41593-023-01396-3

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 37501003

VL - 26

SP - 1516

EP - 1528

JO - Nature Neuroscience

JF - Nature Neuroscience

SN - 1097-6256

ER -