Spontaneous and evoked activity of intercalated amygdala neurons

Collins, Dawn; Paré, Denis

doi:10.1046/j.1460-9568.1999.00763.x

Cited by 28 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Although this possibility cannot be excluded at the present time, since anesthetics generally depress neuronal excitability, we would expect ITC cells to display even stronger IL responses and higher spontaneous firing rates in behaving animals. Consistent with this notion, a previous study in unanesthetized cats (Collins and Paré 1999) reported that ITC cells had much higher spontaneous firing rates than observed in the present study.…”

Section: Distinctive Responsiveness Of Itc Cells To Il Inputssupporting

confidence: 93%

“…First, although experimental studies on extinction are typically performed in rats and mice, the majority of studies on ITC cells have been performed in guinea pigs and cats (Collins and Paré 1999;Smith 1993a, 1993b;Paré 2002, 2003;Royer et al 1999Royer et al , 2000aRoyer et al , 2002b, with few exceptions (Geracitano et al 2007;Marowsky et al 2005). As a result, it is currently unclear whether critical aspects of ITC connectivity also characterize commonly used rodent species.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, we lack criteria to identify ITC cells on the basis of their discharge pattern and have little data about their activity in vivo (Collins and Paré 1999). As a result, it has been impossible to test key predictions of ITC extinction models (Paré et al 2004).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Physiological identification and infralimbic responsiveness of rat intercalated amygdala neurons

Amir

Amano

Paré

2011

Journal of Neurophysiology

102

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Intercalated (ITC) amygdala neurons are thought to play a critical role in the extinction of conditioned fear. However, several factors hinder progress in studying ITC contributions to extinction. First, although extinction is usually studied in rats and mice, most ITC investigations were performed in guinea pigs or cats. Thus it is unclear whether their connectivity is similar across species. Second, we lack criteria to identify ITC cells on the basis of their discharge pattern. As a result, key predictions of ITC extinction models remain untested. Among these, ITC cells were predicted to be strongly excited by infralimbic inputs, explaining why infralimbic inhibition interferes with extinction. To study the connectivity of ITC cells, we labeled them with neurobiotin during patch recordings in slices of the rat amygdala. This revealed that medially located ITC cells project topographically to the central nucleus and to other ITC clusters located more ventrally. To study the infralimbic responsiveness of ITC cells, we performed juxtacellular recording and labeling of amygdala cells with neurobiotin in anesthetized rats. All ITC cells were orthodromically responsive to infralimbic stimuli, and their responses usually consisted of high-frequency (~350 Hz) trains of four to six spikes, a response pattern never seen in neighboring amygdala nuclei. Overall, our results suggest that the connectivity of ITC cells is conserved across species and that ITC cells are strongly responsive to infralimbic stimuli, as predicted by extinction models. The unique response pattern of ITC cells to infralimbic stimuli can now be used to identify them in fear conditioning experiments.

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Section: Distinctive Responsiveness Of Itc Cells To Il Inputssupporting

confidence: 93%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Physiological identification and infralimbic responsiveness of rat intercalated amygdala neurons

Amir

Amano

Paré

2011

Journal of Neurophysiology

102

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“…A possible explanation for these somewhat discrepant results may lie in the unique physiology of medial ICN neurons. These neurons are fast-spiking and respond to IL stimulation by firing high frequency spike bursts (Collins and Paré, 1999; Amir et al, 2011). Moreover, they exhibit an unusual slowly inactivating voltage-dependent potassium conductance (I SD ) which activates at subthreshold voltages and inactivates in response to depolarization (Royer et al, 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medial prefrontal cortical innervation of the intercalated nuclear region of the amygdala

2012

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The projections of the infralimbic area (IL) of the medial prefrontal cortex to the intercalated nuclei (ICNs) of the amygdala are thought to form a critical component of the forebrain circuitry for fear extinction. Despite the importance of these projections, there have been no focussed anatomical studies that have investigated the extent of IL inputs to different portions of the ICN complex. The present investigation used anterograde tract tracing in the rat to study the projections of the ventromedial PFC, including the IL, to the ICNs and surrounding amygdalar regions. Immunohistochemistry for the μ-opioid receptor (MOR) was used to identify the ICNs. At rostral levels of the amygdala there was a very dense projection to a far lateral portion of the capsular subdivision of the central nucleus (CLC) located between the main and medial ICNs, but only very light projections to these ICNs and the lateral ICNs. This distinct portion of the CLC receiving strong IL inputs was termed the capsular infralimbic target zone (CITZ), and was MOR-negative. Likewise, at more caudal levels of the amygdala, IL projections to the medial, lateral and dorsal ICNs were light to moderate compared with projections to adjacent portions of the basolateral amygdala and amygdalostriatal transitional area. These findings suggest that the putative role of the IL-to-ICN connection in fear inhibition may be mediated by light to moderate projections from the IL to the medial ICN, and that the CITZ may be an equally important amygdalar target for this function.

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“…According to a functional scheme proposed by Paré and colleagues (Collins and Paré 1999;Paré and Smith 1993;Royer et al 1999; reviewed by Davis and Whalen 2001), the lateral, basal, and accessory basal nuclei of the amygdala, evaluate the emotional valence of stimuli, whereas the central nucleus is the effector for an appropriate behavioral and autonomic response. Neurons in the central nucleus are involved in the initiation of somatic, autonomic, and endocrine responses to emotional stimuli (Kaada 1967;Kapp et al 1979;Moga and Gray 1985).…”

Section: Category-selective Neuronsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Responses to Facial Expression and Face Identity in the Monkey Amygdala

Gothard¹,

Battaglia²,

Erickson³

et al. 2007

Journal of Neurophysiology

305

249

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Gothard KM, Battaglia FP, Erickson CA, Spitler KM, Amaral DG. Neural responses to facial expression and face identity in the monkey amygdala. J Neurophysiol 97: 1671-1683, 2007. First published November 8, 2006 doi:10.1152/jn.00714.2006. The amygdala is purported to play an important role in face processing, yet the specificity of its activation to face stimuli and the relative contribution of identity and expression to its activation are unknown. In the current study, neural activity in the amygdala was recorded as monkeys passively viewed images of monkey faces, human faces, and objects on a computer monitor. Comparable proportions of neurons responded selectively to images from each category. Neural responses to monkey faces were further examined to determine whether face identity or facial expression drove the face-selective responses. The majority of these neurons (64%) responded both to identity and facial expression, suggesting that these parameters are processed jointly in the amygdala. Large fractions of neurons, however, showed pure identityselective or expression-selective responses. Neurons were selective for a particular facial expression by either increasing or decreasing their firing rate compared with the firing rates elicited by the other expressions. Responses to appeasing faces were often marked by significant decreases of firing rates, whereas responses to threatening faces were strongly associated with increased firing rate. Thus global activation in the amygdala might be larger to threatening faces than to neutral or appeasing faces.

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Spontaneous and evoked activity of intercalated amygdala neurons

Cited by 28 publications

References 35 publications

Physiological identification and infralimbic responsiveness of rat intercalated amygdala neurons

Physiological identification and infralimbic responsiveness of rat intercalated amygdala neurons

Medial prefrontal cortical innervation of the intercalated nuclear region of the amygdala

Neural Responses to Facial Expression and Face Identity in the Monkey Amygdala

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