Pain has a strong emotional dimension, and the amygdala plays a key role in emotionality. The processing of nociceptive mechanical and thermal information was studied in individual neurons of the central nucleus of the amygdala, the target of the spino-parabrachio-amygdaloid pain pathway and a major output nucleus of the amygdala. This study is the first to characterize nociceptive amygdala neu...

Effects of intra-central amygdala administration of L-arginine, a nitric oxide precursor, and NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl-ester (L NAME), a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, on the morphine-induced sensitization and also on the expression of morphine-induced place conditioning in rats were studied. Subcutaneous (s.c.) administration of morphine (2.5, 5 and 7.5 mg/kg) induced place conditioning. R...

Objective(s) Single injection of naloxone, a selective antagonist of morphine, prior to the drug conditioning testing was used to investigate on morphine dependence. Materials and Methods Conditioning to morphine (2.5-10 mg/kg, s.c.) was established in adult male Wistar rats (weighing 200-250 g) using an unbiased procedure. Nitric oxide agents were microinjected into the central amygdala pri...

the catastrophic effects of opioids use on public health and the economy are documented clearly in numerous studies. repeated morphine administration can lead to either a decrease (tolerance) or an increase (sensitization) in its behavioral and rewarding effects. morphine-induced sensitization is a major problem and plays an important role in abuse of the opioid drugs. studies reported that mor...

In rats and primates, the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeN) is most known for its role in responses to fear stimuli. Recent evidence also shows that the CeN is required for directing attention and behaviors when the salience of competing stimuli is in flux. To examine how information flows through this key output region of the primate amygdala, we first placed small injections of retrograde...

In mammals, the central extended amygdala shows a highly complex organization, and is essential for animal survival due to its implication in fear responses. However, many aspects of its evolution are still unknown, and this structure is especially poorly understood in birds. The aim of this study was to define the central extended amygdala in chicken, by means of a battery of region-specific t...

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...

The amygdala is a limbic brain region that plays a key role in emotional processing, neuropsychiatric disorders, and the emotional-affective dimension of pain. Preclinical and clinical studies have identified amygdala hyperactivity as well as impairment of cortical control mechanisms in pain states. Hyperactivity of basolateral amygdala (BLA) neurons generates enhanced feedforward inhibition an...