Nicotine modulates contextual fear extinction through changes in ventral hippocampal GABAergic function.

ABSTRACT: Numerous studies have attributed the psychopathology of anxiety and stress disorders to maladaptive behavioral responses such as an inability to extinguish fear. Therefore, understanding neural substrates of fear extinction is imperative for developing more effective therapies for anxiety and stress disorders. Although several studies indicated a role for cholinergic transmission and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in anxiety and stress disorder symptomatology, very little is known about the specific contribution of nAChRs in the fear extinction process. In the present study, we first examined the involvement of several brain regions essential for fear extinction (i.e., dorsal and ventral hippocampus, dHPC and vHPC; infralimbic, IL, and prelimbic, PL of the medial prefrontal cor

SUBMITTER: Kutlu MG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6170695 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature