scholarly journals Inhibitory Circuits in the Basolateral Amygdala in Aversive Learning and Memory

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madhusoothanan B. Perumal ◽  
Pankaj Sah
Keyword(s):  
Learning And Memory ◽  
Basolateral Amygdala ◽  
Emotional Memory ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Inhibitory Circuits ◽  
Cell Type Specific ◽  
Inhibitory Circuit ◽  
Local Circuits ◽  
Organizing Principles

Neural circuits in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) play a pivotal role in the learning and memory formation, and processing of emotionally salient experiences, particularly aversive ones. A diverse population of GABAergic neurons present in the BLA orchestrate local circuits to mediate emotional memory functions. Targeted manipulation of GABAergic neuronal subtypes has shed light on cell-type specific functional roles in the fear learning and memory, revealing organizing principles for the operation of inhibitory circuit motifs in the BLA.

scholarly journals Basolateral amygdala parvalbumin neurons report aversive prediction error to constrain fear learning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Oi-Yue Yau ◽  
Chanchanok Chaichim ◽  
John M. Power ◽  
Gavan P. McNally
Keyword(s):  
Prediction Error ◽  
Basolateral Amygdala ◽  
Projection Neuron ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Neuron Activity ◽  
Projection Neurons ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Aversive Events ◽  
Cell Type Specific

AbstractAnimals, including humans, use prediction error to guide learning about danger in the environment. The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is obligatory for this learning and BLA excitatory projection neurons are instructed by aversive prediction error to form fear associations. Complex networks of inhibitory interneurons, dominated by parvalbumin (PV) expressing GABAergic neurons, form the intrinsic microcircuitry of the BLA to control projection neuron activity. Whether BLA PV interneurons are also sensitive to prediction error and how they use this error to control fear learning remains unknown. We used PV cell-type specific recording and manipulation approaches in male transgenic PV-Cre rats to address these issues. We show that BLA PV neurons control fear learning about aversive events but not learning about their omission. Furthermore, during fear learning BLA PV neurons express the activity signatures of aversive prediction error: greater activity to unexpected than expected aversive events and greater activity to better rather than poorer predictors of these events. Crucially, we show that BLA PV neurons act to limit fear learning across these variations in prediction error. Together, this demonstrates that prediction error instructs and regulates BLA fear association formation in a cell-type specific manner. Whereas BLA projection neurons use prediction error signals to form and store fear associations, BLA PV interneurons use prediction error signals to constrain fear association formation.Significance StatementThe capacity to predict sources of danger in the environment is essential for survival. This capacity is supported by associative learning mechanisms that are triggered when the danger experienced is greater than the danger expected. Here we show that the activity of parvalbumin positive GABAergic interneurons in the rat basolateral amygdala neurons report this difference between the danger expected and the danger experienced and that they use this difference to limit the amount of fear which is learned.

scholarly journals Extensive and spatially variable within-cell-type heterogeneity across the basolateral amygdala

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy P O'Leary ◽  
Kaitlin E Sullivan ◽  
Lihua Wang ◽  
Jody Clements ◽  
Andrew L Lemire ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Long Range ◽  
Basolateral Amygdala ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Spatial Transformations ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Cell Type Specific ◽  
And Function ◽  
Expression Gradients

The basolateral amygdala complex (BLA), extensively connected with both local amygdalar nuclei as well as long-range circuits, is involved in a diverse array of functional roles. Understanding the mechanisms of such functional diversity will be greatly informed by understanding the cell-type-specific landscape of the BLA. Here, beginning with single-cell RNA sequencing, we identified both discrete and graded continuous gene-expression differences within the mouse BLA. Via in situ hybridization, we next mapped this discrete transcriptomic heterogeneity onto a sharp spatial border between the basal and lateral amygdala nuclei, and identified continuous spatial gene-expression gradients within each of these regions. These discrete and continuous spatial transformations of transcriptomic cell-type identity were recapitulated by local morphology as well as long-range connectivity. Thus, BLA excitatory neurons are a highly heterogenous collection of neurons that spatially covary in molecular, cellular, and circuit properties. This heterogeneity likely drives pronounced spatial variation in BLA computation and function.

Basolateral Amygdala Hyperexcitability is Associated With Precocious Developmental Emergence of Fear-Learning in Fragile X Syndrome

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew N. Svalina ◽  
Christian Cea-Del Rio ◽  
Abigail Levy ◽  
Serapio M. Baca ◽  
E. Mae Guthman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fragile X Syndrome ◽  
Basolateral Amygdala ◽  
Fragile X ◽  
Fear Learning

The roles of basolateral amygdala parvalbumin neurons in fear learning

2021 ◽  
pp. JN-RM-2461-20
Author(s):  
Joanna Oi-Yue Yau ◽  
Chanchanok Chaichim ◽  
John M. Power ◽  
Gavan P. McNally
Keyword(s):  
Basolateral Amygdala ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Parvalbumin Neurons

Impact of the metabotropic glutamate receptor7 (mGlu7) allosteric agonist, AMN082, on fear learning and memory and anxiety-like behavior

2019 ◽  
Vol 858 ◽  
pp. 172512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolanta H. Kotlinska ◽  
Malgorzata Lopatynska-Mazurek ◽  
Kinga Gawel ◽  
Patrycja Gabka ◽  
Malgorzata Jenda-Wojtanowska ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Learning And Memory ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Metabotropic Glutamate

scholarly journals Neurotrophin signalling in amygdala-dependent cued fear learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 382 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Meis ◽  
Thomas Endres ◽  
Volkmar Lessmann
Keyword(s):  
Synaptic Plasticity ◽  
Learning And Memory ◽  
Neurotrophic Factor ◽  
Memory Formation ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Mammalian Brain ◽  
Pavlovian Fear Conditioning ◽  
Cortical Afferents ◽  
Trkb Receptors ◽  
Tropomyosin Related Kinase B

Abstract The amygdala is a central hub for fear learning assessed by Pavlovian fear conditioning. Indeed, the prevailing hypothesis that learning and memory are mediated by changes in synaptic strength was shown most convincingly at thalamic and cortical afferents to the lateral amygdala. The neurotrophin brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is known to regulate synaptic plasticity and memory formation in many areas of the mammalian brain including the amygdala, where BDNF signalling via tropomyosin-related kinase B (TrkB) receptors is prominently involved in fear learning. This review updates the current understanding of BDNF/TrkB signalling in the amygdala related to fear learning and extinction. In addition, actions of proBDNF/p75NTR and NGF/TrkA as well as NT-3/TrkC signalling in the amygdala are introduced.

Evidence that a defined population of neurons in lateral amygdala is directly involved in auditory fear learning and memory

2020 ◽  
Vol 168 ◽  
pp. 107139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher W. Butler ◽  
Yvette M. Wilson ◽  
Samuel A. Mills ◽  
Jenny M. Gunnersen ◽  
Mark Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Learning And Memory ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Lateral Amygdala

scholarly journals Chronic opioid pretreatment potentiates the sensitization of fear learning by trauma

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 482-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary T. Pennington ◽  
Jeremy M. Trott ◽  
Abha K. Rajbhandari ◽  
Kevin Li ◽  
Wendy M. Walwyn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Basolateral Amygdala ◽  
Traumatic Event ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Opioid Use ◽  
Physical Injuries ◽  
Opioid Administration ◽  
The Impact ◽  
First Time ◽  
Considerable Period

AbstractDespite the large comorbidity between PTSD and opioid use disorders, as well as the common treatment of physical injuries resulting from trauma with opioids, the ability of opioid treatments to subsequently modify PTSD-related behavior has not been well studied. Using the stress-enhanced fear learning (SEFL) model for PTSD, we characterized the impact of chronic opioid regimens on the sensitization of fear learning seen following traumatic stress in mice. We demonstrate for the first time that chronic opioid pretreatment is able to robustly augment associative fear learning. Highlighting aversive learning as the cognitive process mediating this behavioral outcome, these changes were observed after a considerable period of drug cessation, generalized to learning about multiple aversive stimuli, were not due to changes in stimulus sensitivity or basal anxiety, and correlated with a marker of synaptic plasticity within the basolateral amygdala. Additionally, these changes were not observed when opioids were given after the traumatic event. Moreover, we found that neither reducing the frequency of opioid administration nor bidirectional manipulation of acute withdrawal impacted the subsequent enhancement in fear learning seen. Given the fundamental role of associative fear learning in the generation and progression of PTSD, these findings are of direct translational relevance to the comorbidity between opioid dependence and PTSD, and they are also pertinent to the use of opioids for treating pain resulting from traumas involving physical injuries.

Encoding of fear learning and memory in distributed neuronal circuits

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. 1644-1654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Herry ◽  
Joshua P Johansen
Keyword(s):  
Learning And Memory ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Neuronal Circuits
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