Basolateral amygdala

…somatostatin (SST) interneurons in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) of females and

…The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is a critical region of the limbic system involved in diverse emotional processing, and studies in human and AD animal models have reported that it is altered in early AD. However, whether synaptic and excitability properties are altered in the BLA in AD has not been studied. In this study, we used 6-month-old APP/PS1

While many individuals experience traumatic events during their lifetimes, only some go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This susceptibility and resilience can be modelled in rodents using the stress-enhanced fear learning (SEFL) procedure, in which rats are exposed to a session of massed, unpredictable footshocks and subsequently assessed on tasks of adaptive fear learning. It has previously been observed that subpopulations of rats are susceptible or resilient to showing the PTSD-like phenotype following SEFL, and that these rats show differences in glutamate receptor sub

…The basolateral amygdala (BLA) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are essential for the consolidation of fear memories. This consolidation occurs in particular when BLA neurons responding to aversive stimuli are reactivated during non-REM sleep. However, the neural circuit mechanism during non-REM sleep remains unclear. We focus on the role of neocortical slow waves, a hallmark of non-REM sleep, in fear memory formation. By recording l

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is increasingly recognized as a key regulator of depression and anxiety-like behaviors. However, the specific contribution of individual BLA neurons to these behaviors remains poorly understood. Building on our previous study, which demonstrated increased activity in glutamatergic BLA neurons in response to aversive stimuli and that enhancing inhibition in the BLA can alleviate depressive-like behaviors, we investigated the role of individual GABAergic neurons (BLAGABA) in depressive and anxiety-like phenotypes. Our findings indicate that BLAGABA neurons show dec

…involves a neural circuit in which the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) play a central role. We have observed that both the PFC and the BLA send converging unidirectional excitatory inputs to the dorsomedial striatum (DMS), which thus may be ideally positioned to regulate the output of this circuit. Indeed, the D

Stressful behavior is transferred epigenetically. Here we study the biophysical mechanism of such epigenetic inheritance. Mice were exposed to varying protocols of tone-shock fear conditioning: a predictable group exposed to repetitions of consistent pairs of tone-shock; an unpredictable group exposed to tone and shocks in a random order; a naïve control [MOU1] group exposed to home cage conditions. After two weeks, all groups were exposed to the tone only for three days. The unpredictable group exhibited significantly higher freezing than both control and predictable groups on all three days,

…and synaptic properties of PFC-basolateral amygdala (BLA) and PFC-PFC projection neurons. Adult male and female mice were exposed to either restraint stress (RS) or

Patients with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), are thought to experience less pain, which is largely based on subjective caregiver or clinician reports of blunted behavioral expression in response to painful stimuli. But recent studies suggest that physiological responses (heart rate, cortisol levels, etc.) to noxious stimuli are heightened compared to neurotypical individuals. The neural valence system is a network of interconnected brain regions that integrates downward sensory stimuli with upward signals reflecting the current physiological state

Neuromodulatory systems, more specifically dopamine, noradrenaline, serotonin, and acetylcholine can dynamically change brain states and rapidly alter information processing of large number of neurons. Therefore, they can play a crucial role in cognitive functions, including learning and memory, and are accordingly severely implicated in neurodegenerative diseases. Interestingly, neuromodulatory systems often regulate seemingly overlapping cognitive processes and show similar modes of action. To reveal possible synergistic or antagonistic relations and to better understand the exact role of th

…anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and basolateral amygdala (BLA). An essential actor for the EI balance are the fast-spiking interneurons expressing parvalbumin (INPV). These neurons are surrounded by a specialized extracellular matrix, the perineuronal nets (PNNs) which regulate their functions a

…The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is a key structure for processing positive and negative valence which communicates bidirectionally with other regions to regulate the stress responses. The present study evaluates the efficacy of cortico

…outputs in the prefrontal cortex and basolateral amygdala, regions that play a central role in the expression of core symptoms in autistic behaviors.We observed that valproate treatment at E12.5 resulted in a decrease in ultrasound vocalizations in the pups (n=12) and an increase in tactile sensitivity assessed by the von Frey test in comparison to controls (n=13)

Neuroactive steroids such as allopregnanolone that act as a positive allosteric modulator of synaptic and extrasynaptic δ-subunit-containing GABAA receptors, has shown antidepressant effects on depressive symptoms in both clinical and preclinical studies. However, the neuronal dynamics associated with these effects are still unknown. In the present study, we discovered that allopregnanolone, but not the benzodiazepine diazepam, has antidepressant-like effects in the social interaction test (SIT) of social defeat stress (SDS) model mice by decreasing intervals of repetitive social interaction (

Studies suggest the basolateral amygdala (BLA) modulates memory-consolidation processes via interactions with downstream brain regions like the hippocampus. Furthermore, direct electrical stimulation of the BLA in humans enhances declarative memory, and this memory enhancement is marked by oscillatory interactions between the BLA and hippocampus. However, the BLA disproportionately projects to the anterior hippocampus compared to the posterior hippocampus, regions that process non-spatial information about objects and spatial information about scenes, respectively. Nevertheless, the premise th

The Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) is a crucial component of the brain's reward system and is known to regulate motivated behaviour. Recent studies have shown that activation of VTA dopaminergic (DA) neurons can stimulate anti-bacterial and anti-tumour immunity, suggesting a potential link between mental states and an organism's immune response to disease. However, the specific mechanisms underlying these peripheral effects are still unclear. Given that VTA-DA neurons project to multiple brain regions, and each pathway promote different behaviour we considered that also the immune effects of eac

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is a cortical structure playing a role in various cognitive processes. In spite of many studies focusing on local information processing within the circuits of the BLA, the features of amygdalar principal neurons (PNs) remained elusive. Here, we combined neuroanatomical, electrophysiological and tracing techniques to determine the single-cell features, dendritic and axonal projections of PNs within the lateral (LA) and basal amygdala (BA). Using a mouse reporter line, we found that cholecystokinin (CCK) expression defined two groups of spatially segregated PNs bo

Several anxiety-related neuropsychiatric disorders are associated with amygdala dysfunction during early periods of postnatal development, and adolescence is a particularly vulnerable emotional period. Among the cellular mechanisms involved in changes in the activity of individual neurons and their synaptic connections, the mTOR signaling pathway has been proposed as a molecular regulator of emotional memories and could thus constitute a common mechanistic source of the emergence of anxiety symptoms in these disorders. We hypothesize that amygdala mTOR dysfunction during infancy can initiate a

…progress has been made in uncovering amygdala circuit-level mechanisms for defensive and appetitive behaviors, yet integrating spatial object information within specific amygdala circuits remains a puzzle. To address these gaps, we unveil a com

We previously have demonstrated that brief electrical stimulation to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) reliably enhances declarative memory in humans after a one-day delay without eliciting an emotional response. In the current study 31 drug-resistant epilepsy patients undergoing stereo EEG surgery with depth electrode contacts implanted in various MLT regions. During continuous intracranial EEG recording, each participant was presented with a series of images of neutral objects. Across patients, we delivered a brief stimulation to the BLA (8 trains of 50-Hz pulses at 0.5 mA) before, during, or a

Alpha-synuclein (αSyn)-related pathology crucially contributes to the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease (PD), leading to progressive neuronal populations loss in specific brain regions. This results in the presence of both motor and non-motor symptoms in PD patients. Anxiety occurs at an early stage of the disease and is one of the most frequent neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with PD, indicating pathology in the cortico-limbic system. This study aimed to decipher that the spread of αSyn pathology to a given brain region is sufficient to induce non-motor symptoms observed in PD patient

…focusing on its connections with the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and prefrontal brain region. Using ex-vivo patch clamp, optogenetics, and in-vivo electrophysiology, we map the BLA's inputs to the CLA and its outputs to the prefrontal cortex. Findings reveal that the CLA re

We aimed to investigate the role of dopamine (DA), acetylcholine (ACh), norepinephrine (NE) and serotonin (5-HT) in associative learning and the correlation of their release with the reward prediction error (RPE). To address this, we trained mice on a sound detection Pavlovian conditioning task with a 50% reward schedule that allowed examining clean representations of postivite (rewarded trials) and negative RPE (reward omission trials), while we measured DA, ACh, NE and 5-HT release by fiber photometry. Behavioral updating of value representations based on the outcome of the previous trial wa

…are more activated neurons in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) than control and Pogz+/- female mice. To characterize the morphophysi