Differentiating innate and conditioned fear in behavioral level using pupillometry and neural level using brain-wide traveling wave

2023 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23H03700
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: CHEN Chih・Yang 京都大学, 高等研究院, 特定助教 (30884689)
• Project Period (FY): 2023-04-01 – 2027-03-31
• Keywords: marmoset

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

Innate fear is a negative emotion that is genetically defined to promote animals’ survival. Conditioned fear can be relieved by fear extinction training but innate fear cannot. This leads to around 10%of the patients with anxiety disorders resistant to extinction treatment. The objective of my research is to distinguish innate and conditioned fears by focusing on the neural processing in the early sensory areas at the neural level, by analyzing brain-wide activities and traveling brain waves while the marmosets performing visual fear task, and at the behavioral level, by monitoring the pupil response and blood pressure. I hope to elucidating the cortical dynamic processing of visual innate or conditioned fear and indicating potential cortical targets for patients with anxiety disorders.

Current Status of Research Progress

2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.

Reason

My original plan was to finished the ECoG recording of the first marmoset ECoG and start to establish a ECoG data analysis pipeline using Graph theory. I would also perform the same task on human subjects to see if human exhibits similar differential pupil responses to marmosets. I have indeed finished the ECoG recording for the first marmoset and implanted the ECoG to the second marmoset. But the human recording was delayed due to the lack of human subjects. To compensate with this, I have finished developing the analysis pipeline and is now writing a manuscript to describe the method. Overall, I think I am progressing rather smoothly.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

In 2024, I will implant bio-physiological recording devices (for measuring heart rate and blood pressure) in three marmosets to monitor their emotional change while they perform the visual fear task. I will also continue to collect ECoG data for the second marmoset. To also confirm that the same response could happen to human subjects, I will record the pupil response of human subjects while they are performing the same task. The method paper would be also published within year 2024.