先天性恐惧防御反应主要包括冻结、逃跑、攻击等。先天性恐惧对于物种生存不可或缺,但过度恐惧也会导致精神障碍类疾病,如恐惧症、焦虑症、创伤后应激综合征等。

Table1 感官系统信号诱导的先天性恐惧

嗅觉系统对动物的生存与进化具有重要的意义。与人类相比,动物更多地依赖他们的嗅觉系统来收集外界环境的信息,进而根据自身的经验对这些信息进行处理并作出相应的反应。例如动物利用气味信息来标记领地、寻找食物、识别同类以及躲避天敌。动物对自己天敌的气味可以产生强烈的恐惧反应。目前已发现很多单分子的物质可以模拟天敌的气味用来诱发先天性恐惧,例如捕食者尿液中提取的苯乙胺和狐狸排泄物中的2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline(TMT),以及TMT的衍生物2MT。TMT和2MT均能模拟天敌气味,且可以稳定诱导啮齿类动物 产生冻结行为,多用于先天性恐惧研究。

Fig1 嗅觉信号诱导的先天性恐惧神经环路示意图

文献引用:

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