PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Eun A Choi
AU  - Medina Husić
AU  - E. Zayra Millan
AU  - Philip Jean Richard dit Bressel
AU  - Gavan P. McNally
TI  - A corticothalamic circuit trades off speed for safety during decision-making under motivational conflict
AID  - 10.1101/2021.11.21.469477
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.11.21.469477
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/22/2021.11.21.469477.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/22/2021.11.21.469477.full
AB  - Decisions to act while pursuing goals in the presence of danger must be made quickly but safely. Premature decisions risk injury or death whereas postponing decisions risk goal loss. Here we show how mice resolve these competing demands. Using microstructural behavioral analyses, we identified the spatiotemporal dynamics of approach-avoidance decisions under motivational conflict. Then we used cognitive modelling to show that these dynamics reflect the speeded decision-making mechanisms used by humans and non-human primates, with mice trading off decision speed for safety of choice when danger loomed. Using calcium imaging and functional circuit analyses, we show that this speed-safety trade off occurs because increases in paraventricular thalamus (PVT) activity increase decision caution, thereby increasing approach-avoid decision times in the presence of danger. Our findings demonstrate that a discrete brain circuit involving the PVT and its prefrontal cortical input dynamically adjusts decision caution during motivational conflict, trading off decision speed for decision safety when danger is close. They identify the corticothalamic pathway as central to cognitive control during decision-making under conflict.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.