The Basolateral Nucleus of the Amygdala Is Necessary to Induce the Opposing Effects of Stressful Experience on Learning in Males and Females

Waddell, Jaylyn; Bangasser, Debra A.; Shors, Tracey J.

doi:10.1523/jneurosci.1129-08.2008

Cited by 76 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 45 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Daily corticosterone injections did not interfere with this task, indicating that corticosterone elevation per se cannot reproduce behavioral stress effects on behavioral flexibility. However, similar to previous stress-memory studies (Kim et al 2001;Waddell et al 2008), amygdalar inactivation during stress effectively blocked this effect. This suggests that the amygdala plays a crucial role in mediating stress effects across different cognitive domains.…”

supporting

confidence: 85%

Stress impairs optimal behavior in a water foraging choice task in rats

2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Stress is a biologically significant social–environmental factor that plays a pervasive role in influencing human and animal behaviors. While stress effects on various types of memory are well characterized, its effects on other cognitive functions are relatively unknown. Here, we investigated the effects of acute, uncontrollable stress on subsequent decision-making performance in rats, using a computer vision-based water foraging choice task. Experiencing stress significantly impaired the animals' ability to progressively bias (but not maintain) their responses toward the larger reward when transitioning from equal to unequal reward quantities. Temporary inactivation of the amygdala during stress, however, blocked impairing effects on decision making.

show abstract

supporting

confidence: 85%

Stress impairs optimal behavior in a water foraging choice task in rats

2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Animal studies also suggest that dimorphisms are implicated in gender differences of cerebral 5-HT levels in the hippocampus and amygdala (15) and the hippocampal 5-HT synthesis (16) is greater in female rats than in the males. Behavioral studies have shown differential sensitivities to various kinds of stresses such as novel environment in the open field test (17,18), swim stress (19), and eye-blink conditioning (20) between the males and females. These reports consistently indicate that the females exhibit less adaptation to acute stress.…”

Section: Metaplastic Regulation Of the Median Raphe Nucleus Via Serotmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metaplastic Regulation of the Median Raphe Nucleus via Serotonin 5-HT1A Receptor on Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity Is Associated With Gender-Specific Emotional Expression in Rats

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Gender differences in psychiatric disorders are considered to be associated with the serotonergic (5-HTergic) system; however the underlying mechanisms have not been clearly elucidated. In this study, possible involvement of the median raphe nucleus (MRN)-hippocampus 5-HTergic system in gender-specific emotional regulation was investigated, focusing on synaptic plasticity in rats. A behavioral study using a contextual fear conditioning (CFC) paradigm showed that the females exhibited low anxiety-like behavior. Extracellular 5-HT levels in the hippocampus were increased by CFC only in the males. Long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampal CA1 field was suppressed after CFC in the males, which was mimicked by the synaptic response to MRN electrical stimulation. In the MRN, 5-HT immunoreactive cells significantly increased in the females compared with those in the males. Pretreatment with the 5-HT 1A receptor agonists tandospirone (10 mg/kg, i.p.) and 8-OH DPAT (3 mg/kg, i.p.) significantly suppressed LTP induction in the males. Synaptic responses to CFC and 5-HT 1A receptor interventions were not observed in the females. These results suggest that the metaplastic 5-HTergic mechanism via 5-HT 1A receptors in the MRN-hippocampus pathway is a key component for gender-specific emotional regulation and may be a cause of psychiatric disorders associated with vulnerability or resistance to emotional stress.

show abstract

“…Furthermore, rapid spinogenesis of pyramidal neurons is induced by a single application of the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone (Komatsuzaki et al, 2005) and NCAM and PSA-NCAM are known to be critically involved in regulating spinogenesis and synapatogenesis Muller et al, in press), as well as synaptic activity Cremer et al, 1998;Lüthi et al, 1994;Muller et al, 1996;Ronn et al, 1995;Senkov et al, 2006). Moreover, the basolateral amygdala (BLA) has been implicated in the facilitation of eyeblink conditioning induced by prior stress (Shors & Mathew, 1998;Waddell, Bangasser, & Shors, 2008) and recent evidence indicates that PSA-NCAM in this amygdaloid nucleus is highly responsive to different stress schedules (Cordero et al, 2005;Markram et al, 2007b). However, the potential implication of PSA-NCAM (and NCAM) in the amygdala on stress effects on conditioning processes still remains to be tested.…”

Section: Extrinsic Stress and Ncammentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning under stress: A role for the neural cell adhesion molecule NCAM

Bisaz

Conboy

Sandi

2009

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

a b s t r a c tStress is known to be a potent modulator of brain function and cognition. While prolonged and/or excessive stress generally exerts negative effects on learning and memory processes, acute stress can have differential effects on memory function depending on a number of factors (such as stress duration, stress intensity, timing and the source of the stress, as well as the learning type under study). Here, we have focused on the effects of 'acute' stress, and examined the literature attending to whether the ''source of stress" is 'intrinsic' (i.e., when stress is originated by the cognitive task) or 'extrinsic' (i.e., when stress is induced by elements not related to the cognitive task). We have questioned here whether the neural cell adhesion molecule of the immunoglobulin superfamily (NCAM) contributes to the neurobiological mechanisms that translate the effects of these two different stress sources into the different behavioral and cognitive outcomes. NCAM is a cell adhesion macromolecule known to play a critical role in development and plasticity of the nervous system. NCAM and its post-translational modified form PSA-NCAM are critically involved in mechanisms of learning and memory and their expression levels are known to be highly susceptible to modulation by stress. Whereas available data are insufficient to conclude as to whether NCAM mediates extrinsic stress effects on learning and memory processes, we present systematic evidence supporting a key mediating role for both NCAM and PSA-NCAM in the facilitation of memory consolidation induced by intrinsic stress. Furthermore, NCAM is suggested to participate in some of the bidirectional effects of stress on memory processes, with its enhanced synaptic expression involved in facilitating stress actions while its reduced expression being related to impairing effects of stress on memory function.

show abstract

The Basolateral Nucleus of the Amygdala Is Necessary to Induce the Opposing Effects of Stressful Experience on Learning in Males and Females

Cited by 76 publications

References 45 publications

Stress impairs optimal behavior in a water foraging choice task in rats

Stress impairs optimal behavior in a water foraging choice task in rats

Metaplastic Regulation of the Median Raphe Nucleus via Serotonin 5-HT1A Receptor on Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity Is Associated With Gender-Specific Emotional Expression in Rats

Learning under stress: A role for the neural cell adhesion molecule NCAM

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About