Dopamine responses to visual threats in the LNAc. A) Dopamine release in the mouse NAc was recorded with fiber photometry during a looming stimulus assay. Inset: Representative confocal image with a photometry fiber track and dLight1 expression. B) Photometry fiber tip locations in the LNAc. C) Velocity heat maps showing individual behavioral responses to looming disks (left) and contrast-inverted control disks (right) in all mice tested (n = 44 across three groups). D) Left: average (top, ±SEM) and individual (bottom) LNAc dLight1 responses to black looming disks. Right: the stimulus-associated dLight1 response was dependent upon the stimulus number (n_dLight1 = 16; one-way repeated measures ANOVA with Bonferroni correction; F_5,75 = 8.86, P = 0.0004). A significant dopamine transient was observed at the onset of the first disk compared with baseline (*P < 0.05). E) Left: average mouse velocity during escape in mice that fled to the shelter (11 of 16) ± SEM. Right: Pearson correlation coefficients between the LNAc dLight1 response to the first dark looming disk and escape latency, acceleration, or peak velocity (*P < 0.05). F) Left: average (top, ±SEM) and individual (bottom) LNAc dLight1 responses at escape onset. Right: no escape-associated change in dLight1 fluorescence was observed relative to baseline (n = 11; paired t test; t₁₀ = 0.85, P = 0.42). G) Left: average mouse velocity during a vigorous spontaneous movement bout ± SEM. Middle: average (top, ±SEM) and individual (bottom) LNAc dLight1 responses at movement onset. Right: no movement-associated change in dLight1 fluorescence was observed relative to baseline (n = 16; paired t test; t₁₅ = 1.92, P = 0.07).