Two studies explored the role of the amygdala in response modulation by an aversive conditioned stimulus (CS) in rats. Experiment 1 investigated the role of amygdala circuitry in conditioned suppression using a paradigm in which licking for sucrose was inhibited by a tone CS that had been previously paired with footshock. Electrolytic lesions of the lateral amygdala (LA) impaired suppression re...

GABAergic transmission in the amygdala modulates the expression of anxiety. Understanding the interplay between GABAergic transmission and excitatory circuits in the amygdala is, therefore, critical for understanding the neurobiological basis of anxiety. Here, we used a multi-disciplinary approach to demonstrate that GluR5-containing kainate receptors regulate local inhibitory circuits, modulat...

background and objective: amygdala contains central nucleus which is the region rich of γ-aminobutyric acid (gaba-a) receptors and plays a key role in modulating behavior and sleep homeostasis. furthermore, dysfunction of amygdala probably contributes to anxiety and mood disorders. in this study, we evaluated the association between acute sleep deprivation (asd) and anxiety through gaba-a recep...

An emerging theme in the neuroscience of emotion is the question of how acute stress shapes, and distorts, social-emotional behavior. The prevailing neurocircuitry models of social-emotional behavior emphasize the central role of the amygdala. Acute stress leads to increased central levels of norepinephrine (NE) and cortisol (CORT), and evidence suggests that these endogenous neuromodulators sy...

Aversive Pavlovian memory coordinates the defensive behavioral response to learned threats. The amygdala is a key locus for the acquisition and storage of aversive associations. Information about conditioned and unconditioned stimuli converge in the lateral amygdala, which is a hot spot for the plasticity induced by associative learning. Central amygdala uses Pavlovian memory to coordinate the ...

INTRODUCTION The central nucleus of amygdala plays an important role mediating fear and anxiety responses. It is known that oxytocin microinjections into the central nucleus of amygdala induce hypergrooming, an experimental model of compulsive behavior. We evaluated the behavioral and cardiorespiratory responses of conscious rats microinjected with oxytocin into the central nucleus of amygdala....

NMDA receptors are well known to play an important role in synaptic development and plasticity. Functional NMDA receptors are heteromultimers thought to contain two NR1 subunits and two or three NR2 subunits. In central neurons, NMDA receptors at immature glutamatergic synapses contain NR2B subunits and are largely replaced by NR2A subunits with development. At mature synapses, NMDA receptors a...

Previous neuroimaging studies have suggested a role of amygdala in trait anxiety level, in which amygdala was typically treated as a whole. To date, it remains unknown whether the morphology of specific subregions of amygdala are associated with trait anxiety. Here, we employed a shape analysis approach to locate the association between its morphology and trait anxiety on the surface of amygdal...