Key result
Dopaminergic DA-WED neurons mediate threat-induced cardiac deceleration and locomotor responses in Drosophila.
Why the study?
The neuronal mechanisms linking threat processing to cardiac modulation and the potential contribution of cardiac dynamics to behavioral output during defensive states remained poorly understood.
Identifies a specific dopaminergic descending pathway in Drosophila that links threat processing to cardiac deceleration and subsequent defensive locomotor behavior.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Hypothesis-generating for threat-cardiac coupling; leaves open conservation of dopaminergic circuits in mammalian models.
Heartbeat and behavior are tightly coordinated during defensive states, yet the neuronal mechanisms linking threat processing to cardiac modulation—and the potential contribution of cardiac dynamics to behavioral output—remain poorly understood. Here we show in Drosophila that mechanical threat triggers locomotion together with cardiac deceleration. We identify two pairs of dopaminergic neurons, termed DA-WED neurons, that mediate this cardiac response: silencing these neurons markedly attenuates threat-induced cardiac deceleration, whereas optogenetic activation induces cardiac deceleration in the absence of threat. Calcium imaging further shows that DA-WED neurons are activated by mechanical threat. Linking cardiac dynamics to behavior, direct optogenetic manipulation of cardiomyocytes that quantitatively reproduces threat-evoked cardiac deceleration is accompanied by increased locomotion. Together, these results identify a dopaminergic descending pathway that links threat processing to cardiac modulation and suggest that cardiac dynamics may contribute to shaping defensive behavior.
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Tsuji et al. (2026) studied Mechanical threat processing and cardiac modulation in Drosophila. Silencing and optogenetic manipulation of DA-WED dopaminergic neurons and cardiomyocytes vs. Absence of threat or unmanipulated control states was evaluated on Threat-induced cardiac deceleration and locomotor response. Two pairs of dopaminergic neurons (DA-WED) mediate mechanical threat-induced cardiac deceleration and locomotor responses in Drosophila.
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