Amygdala-ventral striatum circuit activation decreases long-term fear
Amygdala-ventral striatum circuit activation decreases long-term fear
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DOI：
10.7554/elife.12669
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发表时间：
2016-09-27
期刊：
影响因子：
7.7
通讯作者：
Goosens, Ki A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Correia, Susana S.;McGrath, Anna G.;Goosens, Ki A.
在人类中，腹侧纹状体的激活与恐惧的消退有关，腹侧纹状体是与奖励处理相关的区域，这是治疗恐惧相关疾病的目标。这一证据表明，厌恶记忆的消退涉及奖赏相关回路，但奖赏回路中的活动与恐惧消退之间的因果关系尚未得到证明。在这里，我们确定了一条基底外侧杏仁核(BLA)-腹侧纹状体(NAC)通路，它是由消亡训练激活的。在灭绝学习期间，通过将奖励与恐惧消退训练配对，或者在恐惧消退期间通过光基因刺激这一回路，增强了这一回路的招募，减少了通常在灭绝训练之后的恐惧回归。因此，我们的发现确定了一个特定的BLA-NAC奖励回路，该回路可以调节恐惧消退的持续性，并指出了一个潜在的治疗目标，即在消退治疗后恐惧的回归是治疗的障碍。
In humans, activation of the ventral striatum, a region associated with reward processing, is associated with the extinction of fear, a goal in the treatment of fear-related disorders. This evidence suggests that extinction of aversive memories engages reward-related circuits, but a causal relationship between activity in a reward circuit and fear extinction has not been demonstrated. Here, we identify a basolateral amygdala (BLA)-ventral striatum (NAc) pathway that is activated by extinction training. Enhanced recruitment of this circuit during extinction learning, either by pairing reward with fear extinction training or by optogenetic stimulation of this circuit during fear extinction, reduces the return of fear that normally follows extinction training. Our findings thus identify a specific BLA-NAc reward circuit that can regulate the persistence of fear extinction and point toward a potential therapeutic target for disorders in which the return of fear following extinction therapy is an obstacle to treatment.