Neural Mechanisms and Long-term Potentiation to Emotional recognition and Memory in Amygdala

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(1) Effects of Amygdala Central Nucleus Lesions on Heart Rate in Psychological Stress using the communication boxThe heart rate of shock-free animal in the central compartment decreased during the conditioned tone when the animal was motionless, but increased when the animal was moving. When these animals directly received footshocks, their heart rate increased during the conditioned tone and remarkably after footshock even during motionless periods. Changes of heart rate in shock-free and shocked animals were suppressed during the conditioned tone and post-stimulation phase by the amygdala lesion.(2) Neuronal responses of rat amygdala in fear startle potentiationOf 148 neurons recorded, 39 (26.4%) responded during the conditioned stimulus (CS) and startle stimulus in the conditioned animals. 33 neurons responded to the CS.Response during the CS was modulated by signal that indicated inhibition of conditioned responses. The magnitude of startle potentiation was correlated with neuronal responsiveness during the CS phase.(3) Amygdala neuron responses to prepulse inhibition during rat startle behaviorOf 335 amygdalar neurons recorded, 100 (29.9%) responded during such a startle behavior. Of these, 76 (22.7%) responded at all of noise-alone trials and prepulse trials of 1 and 12 dB above the background noise. Twenty-four neurons responded differentially during prepulse trials.(4) Amygdala contributions in conditioned place avoidanceWe developed a new fear conditioning task to study cue-related fear and contextual fear, in which the unconditioned stimulus of electrical shock is related to a certain place. The animal is able to learn the place-fear association task within several application of electrical shock. Ibotenic lesion of the central and basolateral nuclei induced revisiting in the shock area that he received it previously.These suggest that the amygdala plays an important role of fear recognition fear memory and fear expression.