Hippocampal representations differentiate reactive and anticipatory responses during foraging under threat

Abstract

Adaptive behavior under threat requires balancing reward pursuit against the risk of harm. During approach-avoidance conflict, animals often pause at decision points, but whether these pauses reflect a unified process or distinct decision states remains unclear. Here, we replicate and extend findings from Calvin et al. (2025) by analyzing hippocampal activity in rats performing a pseudo-predator foraging task across two cohorts. We compared mid-track aborts (MTAs), mid-track continues (MTCs), and retreats. Behaviorally, MTAs and MTCs emerged from a shared pause state but diverged in outcome, whereas retreats reflected rapid escape following attack. Despite similar endpoints, retreats and MTAs differed in movement dynamics and neural activity. During retreats, hippocampal representations remained biased toward the attack location. In contrast, representations during MTAs shifted toward safe locations. During pauses, representations differed according to subsequent behavior: pauses preceding MTAs showed greater decoded probability near the attack region, whereas pauses preceding MTCs showed greater decoded probability to goal locations. These differences were present during the outbound approach, suggesting decision-related processes emerged early on in the journey. Together, these findings dissociate hippocampal representations associated with reactive escape from those underlying anticipatory, anxiety-like decision-making, suggesting that the hippocampus dynamically tracks behaviorally relevant features to guide decisions under threat.