The amygdala exhibits significant pathological changes in Parkinson's disease, including atrophy and Lewy body (LB) formation. Amygdala pathology has been suggested to contribute to some clinical features of Parkinson's disease, including deficits of olfaction and facial expression. The degree of neuronal loss in amygdala subnuclei and the relationship with LB formation in non-demented Parkinso...

Key molecular components of the mammalian circadian clock are expressed rhythmically in many brain areas and peripheral tissues in mammals. Here we review findings from our work on rhythms of expression of the clock protein Period2 (PER2) in four regions of the limbic forebrain known to be important in the regulation of motivational and emotional states. These regions include the oval nucleus o...

Fear is an adaptation to danger, but excessive fear underlies diverse forms of mental anguish and pathology. One neural site linked to a sense of adversity is the amygdala, and one neuropeptide, corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), is localized within the central nucleus of the amygdala. Glucocorticoids enhance the production of CRH in this region of the brain, resulting in increased attentio...

The amygdala is a heterogeneous brain structure implicated in processing of emotions and storing the emotional aspects of memories. Gene activity markers such as c-Fos have been shown to reflect both neuronal activation and neuronal plasticity. Herein, we analyze the expression patterns of gene activity markers in the amygdala in response to either behavioral training or treatment with drugs of...

We investigated relation between activity of central nucleus of amygdala (CE) and phasic heart rate deceleration during differential fear conditioning. We found that P2 component of long-lasting event potential (EP) to CS+ but not to CS- correlated strongly with HR deceleration in the 1st second after stimulus onset. The obtained results are discussed in the light of LeDoux's and Kapp's finding...

The posterior orbitofrontal cortex, anterior temporal sensory association areas and the amygdala have a key role in emotional processing and are robustly interconnected. By analogy with the pattern of connections in early processing sensory areas, anterior temporal sensory and polymodal association cortices send primarily feedforward projections to posterior orbitofrontal cortex and to the amyg...

The limbic system has been implicated in the modulation of pain. The aim of this study was to determine the role of amygdala in different types of pain, viz., phasic and tonic. Unilateral stimulation of central nucleus of amygdala (CeA), basolateral nucleus (BL) and medial amygdaloid (MeA) in conscious rats resulted in the reduction of the tonic formalin-induced pain. The thresholds for simple ...