From the Article In Cell Press: The lateral parabrachial nucleus (lPBN) is a majortarget of spinal projection neurons conveying noci-ceptive input into supraspinal structures. However,the functional role of distinct lPBN efferents indiverse nocifensive responses have remained largelyuncharacterized. Here we show that that the lPBN isrequired for escape behaviors and aversive learningto noxious stimulation. In addition, we find that twopopulations of efferent neurons from different re-gions of the lPBN collateralize to distinct targets.Activation of efferent projections to the ventromedialhypothalamus (VMH) or lateral periaqueductal gray(lPAG) drives escape behaviors, whereas activationof lPBN efferents to the bed nucleusstria terminalis(BNST) or central amygdala (CEA) generates an aver-sive memory. Finally, we provide evidence that dy-norphin-expressing neurons, which span cytoarchi-tecturally distinct domains of the lPBN, are requiredfor aversive learning.
https://www.rosslab.neurobio.pitt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/1-s2.0-S089662732030221X-main.pdf