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Project Acronym: GenlnTopics: Autism, Innate Fear Circuit, Cognition, NeuronsDisciplinary fields: Neurosciences, Medical Imagery, Optical Imagery, InformaticsSummary: Mice with a deletion of a single copy of the Tshz3 gene have autistic features and an innate fear of bright spaces is particularly exacerbated. Their confinement in such spaces is accompanied by an increase in flight behaviour and basomedian tonsil activity followed by c-Fos immunoreactivity. There is little functional data for this part of the amygdala. Genln project aims to use functional magnetic resonance imaging on awake animals to determine if other structures have altered activity following confinement in the MRI machine in order to establish a functional connectivity map of the basomedian tonsil. The aim is to identify the circuits of innate fears and possibly those of specific phobias, phobias often associated with autism. The study also seeks to determine whether mice are capable of experiencing positive emotions following the application of an odorous stimulus that innately activates reward circuits. At the same time, behavioural tests on the ability of mice to detect and discriminate between attractive and repulsive olfactory stimuli are being carried out. Project Interlocutor: Laurence Had (IBDM, UMR 7288)Project Duration: 05/08/2019 - 11/08/2020Call of Proposal: Pépinière d'Excellence 2018Photography Credits: Photo by R_ R on Unsplash