A distributed subcortical circuit linked to instrumental information-seeking about threat
Open accessAbstract
Daily life for humans and other animals requires switching between periods of threat- and reward-oriented behavior. We investigated neural activity associated with spontaneous switching, in a naturalistic task, between foraging for rewards and seeking information about potential threats with 7T fMRI in healthy humans. Switching was driven by estimates of likelihood of threat and reward. Both tracking of threat and switching to a vigilant mode in which people sought more information about potential threats were associated with specific but distributed patterns of activity spanning habenula, dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), anterior cingulate cortex, and anterior insula cortex. Different aspects of the distributed activity patterns were linked to monitoring the threat level, seeking information about the threat, and actual threat detection. A distinct pattern of activity in the same circuit and elsewhere occurred during returns to reward-oriented behavior. Individual variation in DRN activity reflected individual variation in the seeking of information about threats.
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A leave-one-out (LOO) procedure was implemented to avoid temporal selection bias in time-course analyses.
“To assess statistical significance while avoiding a temporal selection bias in the time-course analyses, we implemented a LOO procedure.”
From Two prefrontal-subcortical circuits estimate controllability and reflect its impact on learning (2026) · cites this paper as [17]
7T fMRI allowed measurement of BOLD activity even in small subcortical regions such as the DRN and MBD-associated nuclei.
“7T fMRI allowed us to measure blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) activity even in small subcortical regions such as the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN)15”
From Two prefrontal-subcortical circuits estimate controllability and reflect its impact on learning (2026) · cites this paper as [17]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Trier, H. A., Khalighinejad, N., Hamilton, S., Harbison, C., Priestley, L., Laubach, M., Klein-Flügge, M., Scholl, J., & Rushworth, M. F. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- American University (US)
- Warneford Hospital (GB)
- Lyon 1 Université (FR)
- John Radcliffe Hospital (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Trier, Hailey A.
- Scholl, Jacqueline
- Rushworth, Matthew F. S.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2025-01-15
- Volume
- 122
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- e2410955121-e2410955121
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC11761969
- OpenAlex
- W4406424264
- Cited by
- 12
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7
- FWCI
- 6.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (221794/Z/20/Z)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- reward seeking, sustained attention, habenula, dorsal raphe nucleus, anterior cingulate cortex, subcortical circuits, threat detection, individual differences, naturalistic tasks
- MeSH terms
- Insular Cortex, Adult, Brain, Brain Mapping, Fear, Female, Gyrus Cinguli, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Reward, Habenula, Young Adult, Information Seeking Behavior, Dorsal Raphe Nucleus
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