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Emotion and the Cardiovascular System: Postulated Role of Inputs From the Medial Prefrontal Cortex to the Dorsolateral Periaqueductal Gray

The midbrain periaqueductal gray (PAG) plays a major role in generating different types of behavioral responses to emotional stressors. This review focuses on the role of the dorsolateral (dl) portion of the PAG, which on the basis of anatomical and functional studies, appears to have a unique and d...

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Autor principal: Dampney, Roger
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5976784/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29881334
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00343
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author Dampney, Roger
author_facet Dampney, Roger
author_sort Dampney, Roger
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description The midbrain periaqueductal gray (PAG) plays a major role in generating different types of behavioral responses to emotional stressors. This review focuses on the role of the dorsolateral (dl) portion of the PAG, which on the basis of anatomical and functional studies, appears to have a unique and distinctive role in generating behavioral, cardiovascular and respiratory responses to real and perceived emotional stressors. In particular, the dlPAG, but not other parts of the PAG, receives direct inputs from the primary auditory cortex and from the secondary visual cortex. In addition, there are strong direct inputs to the dlPAG, but not other parts of the PAG, from regions within the medial prefrontal cortex that in primates correspond to cortical areas 10 m, 25 and 32. I first summarise the evidence that the inputs to the dlPAG arising from visual, auditory and olfactory signals trigger defensive behavioral responses supported by appropriate cardiovascular and respiratory effects, when such signals indicate the presence of a real external threat, such as the presence of a predator. I then consider the functional roles of the direct inputs from the medial prefrontal cortex, and propose the hypothesis that these inputs are activated by perceived threats, that are generated as a consequence of complex cognitive processes. I further propose that the inputs from areas 10 m, 25 and 32 are activated under different circumstances. The input from cortical area 10 m is of special interest, because this cortical area exists only in primates and is much larger in the brain of humans than in all other primates.
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spelling pubmed-59767842018-06-07 Emotion and the Cardiovascular System: Postulated Role of Inputs From the Medial Prefrontal Cortex to the Dorsolateral Periaqueductal Gray Dampney, Roger Front Neurosci Neuroscience The midbrain periaqueductal gray (PAG) plays a major role in generating different types of behavioral responses to emotional stressors. This review focuses on the role of the dorsolateral (dl) portion of the PAG, which on the basis of anatomical and functional studies, appears to have a unique and distinctive role in generating behavioral, cardiovascular and respiratory responses to real and perceived emotional stressors. In particular, the dlPAG, but not other parts of the PAG, receives direct inputs from the primary auditory cortex and from the secondary visual cortex. In addition, there are strong direct inputs to the dlPAG, but not other parts of the PAG, from regions within the medial prefrontal cortex that in primates correspond to cortical areas 10 m, 25 and 32. I first summarise the evidence that the inputs to the dlPAG arising from visual, auditory and olfactory signals trigger defensive behavioral responses supported by appropriate cardiovascular and respiratory effects, when such signals indicate the presence of a real external threat, such as the presence of a predator. I then consider the functional roles of the direct inputs from the medial prefrontal cortex, and propose the hypothesis that these inputs are activated by perceived threats, that are generated as a consequence of complex cognitive processes. I further propose that the inputs from areas 10 m, 25 and 32 are activated under different circumstances. The input from cortical area 10 m is of special interest, because this cortical area exists only in primates and is much larger in the brain of humans than in all other primates. Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-05-24 /pmc/articles/PMC5976784/ /pubmed/29881334 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00343 Text en Copyright © 2018 Dampney. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Dampney, Roger
Emotion and the Cardiovascular System: Postulated Role of Inputs From the Medial Prefrontal Cortex to the Dorsolateral Periaqueductal Gray
title Emotion and the Cardiovascular System: Postulated Role of Inputs From the Medial Prefrontal Cortex to the Dorsolateral Periaqueductal Gray
title_full Emotion and the Cardiovascular System: Postulated Role of Inputs From the Medial Prefrontal Cortex to the Dorsolateral Periaqueductal Gray
title_fullStr Emotion and the Cardiovascular System: Postulated Role of Inputs From the Medial Prefrontal Cortex to the Dorsolateral Periaqueductal Gray
title_full_unstemmed Emotion and the Cardiovascular System: Postulated Role of Inputs From the Medial Prefrontal Cortex to the Dorsolateral Periaqueductal Gray
title_short Emotion and the Cardiovascular System: Postulated Role of Inputs From the Medial Prefrontal Cortex to the Dorsolateral Periaqueductal Gray
title_sort emotion and the cardiovascular system: postulated role of inputs from the medial prefrontal cortex to the dorsolateral periaqueductal gray
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5976784/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29881334
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00343
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