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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Perception Science
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1462961
This article is part of the Research Topic Processing of Face and Other Animacy Cues in the Brain View all 4 articles

Neuronal mechanism of innate rapid processing of threating animacy cue in primates: Insights from the neuronal responses to snake images Authors

Provisionally accepted
Tsuyoshi Setogawa Tsuyoshi Setogawa 1*Jumpei Matsumoto Jumpei Matsumoto 1Hisao Nishijo Hisao Nishijo 2*Hiroshi Nishimaru Hiroshi Nishimaru 1*
  • 1 System Emotional Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan
  • 2 University of East Asia, Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    To survive in nature, it is crucial for animals to promptly and appropriately respond to visual information, specifically to animacy cues that pose a threat. The subcortical visual pathway is thought to be implicated in the processing of visual information necessary for these responses.In primates, this pathway consists of retina-superior colliculus-pulvinar-amygdala, functioning as a visual pathway that bypasses the geniculo-striate system (retina-lateral geniculate nucleusprimary visual cortex). In this mini review, we summarize recent neurophysiological studies that have revealed neural responses to threatening animacy cues, namely snake images, in different parts of the subcortical visual pathway and closely related brain regions in primates. The results of these studies provide new insights on 1) the role of the subcortical visual pathway in innate cognitive mechanisms for predator recognition that are evolutionarily conserved, and 2) the possible role of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in the development of fear conditioning to cues that should be instinctively avoided based on signals from the subcortical visual pathway, as well as their function in excessive aversive responses to animacy cues observed in conditions such as ophidiophobia (snake phobia).

    Keywords: extrageniculate visual system, single unit activity, monkey, evolution, defence response

    Received: 11 Jul 2024; Accepted: 12 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Setogawa, Matsumoto, Nishijo and Nishimaru. 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) or licensor 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.

    * Correspondence:
    Tsuyoshi Setogawa, System Emotional Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan
    Hisao Nishijo, University of East Asia, Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan
    Hiroshi Nishimaru, System Emotional Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan

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