Authors
Penzo, M. a, Robert, V., Tucciarone, J., De Bundel, D., Wang, M., Van Aelst, L., … Li, B.
Affiliations
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724.
Application Area
Optogenetics
Immunofluorescence
Abstract
Recent studies indicate that the lateral subdivision of the central amygdala (CeL) is essential for fear learning. Specifically, fear conditioning induces cell-type-specific synaptic plasticity in CeL neurons that is required for the storage of fear memories. The CeL also controls fear expression by gating the activity of the medial subdivision of the central amygdala (CeM), the canonical amygdala output to areas that mediate defensive responses. In addition to the connection with CeM, the CeL sends long-range projections to innervate extra-amygdala areas. However, the long-range projection CeL neurons have not been well characterized, and their role in fear regulation is unknown. Here we show in mice that a subset of CeL neurons directly project to the midbrain periaqueductal gray (PAG) and the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus, two brain areas implicated in defensive behaviour. These long-range projection CeL neurons are predominantly somatostatin-positive (SOM?) neurons, which can directly inhibit PAG neurons, and some of which innervate both the PAG and paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus. Notably, fear conditioning potentiates excitatory synaptic transmission onto these long-range projection CeL neurons. Thus, our study identifies as ub population of SOM? CeL neurons that may contribute to fear learning and regulate fear expression independent of CeM.
Extract
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Product Associated Features
pE-100: A range of compact, simple-to-use, single wavelength illumination systems for screening fluorescence.
Product Type
pE-100
Journal
The Journal of Neuroscience
Year of Publication
2014
Country of Publication
Japan
