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Crombie KM, Azar A, Botsford C, Heilicher M, Jaeb M, Gruichich TS, Schomaker CM, Williams R, Stowe ZN, Dunsmoor JE, Cisler JM. Decoding context memories for threat in large-scale neural networks. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhae018. [PMID: 38300181 PMCID: PMC10839849 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2023] [Revised: 01/08/2024] [Accepted: 01/10/2024] [Indexed: 02/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Humans are often tasked with determining the degree to which a given situation poses threat. Salient cues present during prior events help bring online memories for context, which plays an informative role in this process. However, it is relatively unknown whether and how individuals use features of the environment to retrieve context memories for threat, enabling accurate inferences about the current level of danger/threat (i.e. retrieve appropriate memory) when there is a degree of ambiguity surrounding the present context. We leveraged computational neuroscience approaches (i.e. independent component analysis and multivariate pattern analyses) to decode large-scale neural network activity patterns engaged during learning and inferring threat context during a novel functional magnetic resonance imaging task. Here, we report that individuals accurately infer threat contexts under ambiguous conditions through neural reinstatement of large-scale network activity patterns (specifically striatum, salience, and frontoparietal networks) that track the signal value of environmental cues, which, in turn, allows reinstatement of a mental representation, primarily within a ventral visual network, of the previously learned threat context. These results provide novel insight into distinct, but overlapping, neural mechanisms by which individuals may utilize prior learning to effectively make decisions about ambiguous threat-related contexts as they navigate the environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin M Crombie
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 1601 Trinity Street, Building B, Austin, TX 78712, United States
- Department of Kinesiology, The University of Alabama, 620 Judy Bonner Drive, Box 870312, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, United States
| | - Ameera Azar
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 1601 Trinity Street, Building B, Austin, TX 78712, United States
| | - Chloe Botsford
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 6001 Research Park Boulevard, Madison, WI 53719, United States
| | - Mickela Heilicher
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 6001 Research Park Boulevard, Madison, WI 53719, United States
| | - Michael Jaeb
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 6001 Research Park Boulevard, Madison, WI 53719, United States
| | - Tijana Sagorac Gruichich
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 6001 Research Park Boulevard, Madison, WI 53719, United States
| | - Chloe M Schomaker
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 1601 Trinity Street, Building B, Austin, TX 78712, United States
| | - Rachel Williams
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 6001 Research Park Boulevard, Madison, WI 53719, United States
| | - Zachary N Stowe
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 6001 Research Park Boulevard, Madison, WI 53719, United States
| | - Joseph E Dunsmoor
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 1601 Trinity Street, Building B, Austin, TX 78712, United States
- Institute for Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, United States
- Department of Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, Stop C7000, Austin, TX 78712, United States
| | - Josh M Cisler
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 1601 Trinity Street, Building B, Austin, TX 78712, United States
- Institute for Early Life Adversity Research, The University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School, 1601 Trinity Street, Building B, Austin, TX 78712, United States
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