We examined whether anterior and posterior hippocampal subregions in humans show distinct relationships to state and trait anxiety. In rodents, the ventral (but not dorsal) hippocampus is critically involved in contextual anxiety, whereas dorsal hippocampus is affected by chronic stress and genetically bred trait anxiety. These studies suggest that state forms of anxiety may be more associated ...

Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) catabolises the catecholamine neurotransmitters and influences cognitive function. COMT modulates dopamine levels in the prefrontal cortex and its action in this region is generally invoked to explain its effects on cognition. However, its role in other brain regions important for cognitive function remains largely unexplored. Here, we investigated COMT's imp...

Goal-directed and habit-based behaviors are driven by multiple but dissociable decision making systems involving several different brain areas, including the hippocampus and dorsal striatum. On repetitive tasks, behavior transitions from goal directed to habit based with experience. Hippocampus has been implicated in initial learning and dorsal striatum in automating behavior, but recent studie...

Acetylcholine release was measured simultaneously in the hippocampus and dorsal striatum of rats before and during training on a maze that could be learned using either a hippocampus-dependent spatial strategy or a dorsal striatum-dependent turning strategy. A probe trial administered after rats reached a criterion of 9/10 correct responses revealed that about half of the rats used a spatial st...

Using in situ hybridization, we describe, for the first time, the profiles of expression of serotonin receptors (Htr/5-HTR) along the dorsal-ventral axis of mouse hippocampus. cRNA probes for most Htrs, excluding Htr6, were used. All hippocampal subregions and the entorhinal cortex cells providing input into the hippocampus were examined. The study shows that some, but not all, Htrs are express...

5-HT1A autoreceptor antagonists enhance the effects of antidepressants by preventing a negative feedback of serotonin (5-HT) at somatodendritic level. The maximal elevations of extracellular concentration of 5-HT (5-HT(ext)) induced by the 5-HT uptake inhibitor paroxetine in forebrain were potentiated by the 5-HT1A antagonist WAY-100635 (1 mg/kg s.c.) in a regionally dependent manner (striatum ...

One of important aspects of development of Alzheimer's disease is degeneration of septal cholinergic neurons that innervate the hippocampus. We took advantage of widely used model of cholinergic deficit in the hippocampus, intracerebroventricular administration of 192IgG-saporin (Ig-saporin), to analyze the postponed consequences of cholinergic deficit in different parts of the hippocampus. We ...

BACKGROUND Accumulating evidence suggests that stress may orchestrate the engagement of multiple memory systems in the brain. In particular, stress is thought to favor dorsal striatum-dependent procedural over hippocampus-dependent declarative memory. However, the neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying these modulatory effects of stress remain elusive, especially in humans. Here, we targeted the ...