A circuit mechanism for differentiating positive and negative associations
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Author(s)
Namburi, Praneeth
Beyeler, Anna
Yorozu, Suzuko
Calhoon, Gwendolyn G.
Wichmann, Romy
Holden, Stephanie S.
Mertens, Kim L.
Wickersham, Ian R.
Gray, Jesse M.
Halbert, Sarah
Date Issued
April 2015
Journal
Nature
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Namburi, Praneeth, Anna Beyeler, Suzuko Yorozu, Gwendolyn G. Calhoon, Sarah A. Halbert, Romy Wichmann, Stephanie S. Holden, et al. “A Circuit Mechanism for Differentiating Positive and Negative Associations.” Nature 520, no. 7549 (April 30, 2015): 675–78.
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Author's final manuscript
Abstract
The ability to differentiate stimuli predicting positive or negative outcomes is critical for survival, and perturbations of emotional processing underlie many psychiatric disease states. Synaptic plasticity in the basolateral amygdala complex (BLA) mediates the acquisition of associative memories, both positive and negative. Different populations of BLA neurons may encode fearful or rewarding associations, but the identifying features of these populations and the synaptic mechanisms of differentiating positive and negative emotional valence have remained unknown. Here we show that BLA neurons projecting to the nucleus accumbens (NAc projectors) or the centromedial amygdala (CeM projectors) undergo opposing synaptic changes following fear or reward conditioning. We find that photostimulation of NAc projectors supports positive reinforcement while photostimulation of CeM projectors mediates negative reinforcement. Photoinhibition of CeM projectors impairs fear conditioning and enhances reward conditioning. We characterize these functionally distinct neuronal populations by comparing their electrophysiological, morphological and genetic features. Overall, we provide a mechanistic explanation for the representation of positive and negative associations within the amygdala.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14366
