Journal Article

Antagonistic negative and positive neurons of the basolateral amygdala

Pignatelli, Michele, Xu, Sangyu, Itohara, Shigeyoshi, Tonegawa, Susumu, Kim, Joshua

2016

Overview

The authors identify two genetic markers defining non-overlapping populations of principal cells in the amygdala that respond to stimuli of opposite valence. These two populations of cells contribute to behavioral responses to aversive or rewarding experiences, are distributed along antero-posterior gradients that run in opposite directions, and synaptically suppress each other. The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is a site of convergence of negative and positive stimuli and is critical for emotional behaviors and associations. However, the neural substrate for negative and positive behaviors and relationship between negative and positive representations in the basolateral amygdala are unknown. Here we identify two genetically distinct, spatially segregated populations of excitatory neurons in the mouse BLA that participate in valence-specific behaviors and are connected through mutual inhibition. These results identify a genetically defined neural circuit for the antagonistic control of emotional behaviors and memories.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group US,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 13/51 / 38/77 / 38/90 / 631/378/1457/1284 / 631/378/2583 / 64 / 64/60 / Action Potentials - physiology / Amygdala (Brain) / Amygdala - physiology / Animal Genetics and Genomics / Animals / Basolateral Nuclear Complex - physiology / Behavior, Animal - physiology / Behavioral Sciences / Biological Techniques / Biomedicine / Conditioning, Classical - physiology / Emotions - physiology / Gene expression / Inhibition, Psychological / Mice / Neural Pathways - physiology / Neurobiology / Neurons / Neurons - physiology / Neurosciences / Physiological aspects / Proteins