Amygdala intercalated neurons are required for expression of fear extinction.

ABSTRACT: Congruent findings from studies of fear learning in animals and humans indicate that research on the circuits mediating fear constitutes our best hope of understanding human anxiety disorders. In mammals, repeated presentations of a conditioned stimulus that was previously paired to a noxious stimulus leads to the gradual disappearance of conditioned fear responses. Although much evidence suggests that this extinction process depends on plastic events in the amygdala, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Intercalated (ITC) amygdala neurons constitute probable mediators of extinction because they receive information about the conditioned stimulus from the basolateral amygdala (BLA), and contribute inhibitory projections to the central nucleus (CEA), the main output station of the amygd

SUBMITTER: Likhtik E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2528060 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature