Divergence between thalamic and cortical inputs to lateral amygdala during juvenile-adult transition in mice.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Adolescence is considered a critical time of life for emotional development in humans. During this period the amygdala, which regulates emotions, undergoes structural reorganization. Auditory fear conditioning, a form of amygdala-dependent emotional learning, occurs differently in juvenile and adult rodents. Because this learning is mediated by plastic changes in the thalamic and cortical inputs to lateral amygdala (LA), we investigated changes in synaptic properties of these inputs during juvenile-to-adult transition.

Methods

Whole-cell patch clamp recording in amygdala slices from juvenile and young adult mice was conducted to investigate long-term potentiation and basal synaptic transmission in the thalamic and cortical inputs to LA.

Results

We show that

SUBMITTER: Pan BX 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2787234 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature