Oxytocin receptors in the dorsolateral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) bias fear learning toward temporally predictable cued fear.

ABSTRACT: The inability to discriminate between threat and safety is a hallmark of stress-induced psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder. Dorsolateral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST_dl) is critically involved in the modulation of fear and anxiety, and has been proposed to regulate discrimination between signaled (cued, predictable) and unsignaled (unpredictable) threats. We recently showed that oxytocin receptors (OTRs) in the BNST_dl facilitate acquisition of cued fear measured in a fear-potentiated startle (FPS). In the current study, using in vivo microdialysis in awake male Sprague-Dawley rats, a double immunofluorescence approach with confocal microscopy, as well as retrograde tracing of hypothalamic BNST-projecting OT neurons, we investig

SUBMITTER: Martinon D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6472379 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature