Stimulation of Medial Prefrontal Cortex Decreases the Responsiveness of Central Amygdala Output Neurons
Ponce Health Sciences University · University of Puerto Rico at Ponce · +1 more institution
Abstract
In extinction of auditory fear conditioning, rats learn that a tone no longer predicts the occurrence of a footshock. Recent lesion and unit recording studies suggest that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays an essential role in the inhibition of conditioned fear following extinction. mPFC has robust projections to the amygdala, a structure that is known to mediate the acquisition and expression of conditioned fear. Fear conditioning potentiates the tone responses of neurons in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), which excite neurons in the central nucleus (Ce) of the amygdala. In turn, the Ce projects to the brainstem and hypothalamic areas that mediate fear responses. The present study was undertaken to…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 16.38
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 63
Authors
4- GJGregory J. QuirkCorresponding
Ponce Health Sciences University, University of Puerto Rico at Ponce
- ELEkaterina Likhtik
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Ponce Health Sciences University
- JGJoe Guillaume Pelletier
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Ponce Health Sciences University
- DPDenis Paré
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Ponce Health Sciences University
Topics & keywords
- Neuroscience
- Amygdala
- Prefrontal cortex
- Fear conditioning
- Fear processing in the brain
- Extinction (optical mineralogy)
- Psychology
- Basolateral amygdala