2007 Amygdala in Health & Disease Gordon Research Conference

描述（申请人提供）：杏仁核在健康和疾病中的作用：对情绪记忆的贡献杏仁核是构成边缘系统一部分的颞叶结构，在情绪处理中起着关键作用。自Kluver和Bucy的经典实验以来，它与动物恐惧和焦虑的相关性已经广为人知，他们在猴子身上进行了颞叶中期损伤，并发现了对这些动物的情感和社会行为的深刻影响。当杏仁核在恐惧条件反射中的作用被确立后，对杏仁核的研究得到了极大的关注。恐惧条件反射是一个简单的巴甫洛夫条件反射任务，其中中性刺激偶然地与厌恶刺激配对。这种学习任务的简单性质，以及伴随而来的易于测量的生理变化，使得对恐惧条件反射的研究成为学习和记忆巩固研究的一个非常有吸引力的目标。由于构成恐惧条件反射的神经回路很简单，而且似乎在物种之间得到了保存，因此它为研究哺乳动物神经系统中的学习和记忆形成提供了一个可接近的模型。动物和人类恐惧之间的生理相似性使得恐惧条件反射与人类焦虑症的起源非常相关。此外，最近的研究表明，杏仁核功能的变化可能更普遍地导致情绪学习的病理形式，如吸毒成瘾。因此，对杏仁核功能的兴趣吸引了越来越多的人对动物和人类实验的兴趣，这些实验使用简单的行为测试和功能成像。这次会议是戈登关于杏仁核功能的第一次会议，将重点研究杏仁核在正常和病理情感记忆形成中的作用。它将涵盖在电生理、分子和行为水平的动物研究中这种记忆形成的生理方面。杏仁核功能的病理方面将由研究人类课题的演讲者讲授，并将讨论情绪处理的功能和病理方面，以及动物和人类杏仁核功能研究之间的关系。这项申请是为一个关于杏仁核的新会议提供资金，杏仁核是一种参与处理情感相关信息的结构。这种结构的功能障碍被认为会导致各种与焦虑相关的疾病，如创伤后应激障碍和惊恐发作。本次会议将汇集从科学家到临床医生的一系列专家，讨论杏仁核功能和功能障碍的最新进展。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The amygdala in health and disease: contributions to emotional memories The amygdala, a temporal lobe structure that forms part of the limbic system, plays a key role in emotional processing. Its relevance to fear and anxiety in animals has been well known since the classic experiments of Kluver and Bucy, who made mid-temporal lesions in monkeys and found profound effects on the emotional and social behavior of these animals. Focus on studies of the amygdala expanded greatly when its role in fear conditioning was established. Fear conditioning is a simple Pavlovian conditioning task in which a neutral stimulus is contingently paired with an aversive stimulus. The simple nature of this learning task, and the readily measured physiological changes that accompany it, have made the study of fear conditioning a very attractive target for the study of learning and memory consolidation. As the neural circuitry that underlies fear conditioning is simple and appears to be preserved between species, it presents an accessible model for the study of learning and memory formation in the mammalian nervous system. The physiological similarities between animal and human fear makes fear conditioning very relevant to the genesis of anxiety disorders in humans. Moreover, recent research indicates that changes in amygdala function may contribute more generally to pathological forms of emotional learning such as drug addiction. Interest in amygdala function has therefore attracted growing interest in both animal and human experiments using both simple behavioral tests and functional imaging. This conference is the first Gordon conference on Amygdala function and will focus on research investigating the role of the amygdala in the formation of emotional memories, both normal and pathological. It will cover the physiological aspects of this memory formation in animal studies at the electrophysiological, molecular and behavioral level. The pathological aspects of amygdala function will be covered by speakers working on human subjects and will address both functional and pathological aspects of emotional processing as well as the relationship between animal and human studies of amygdala function. This application is to provide funding for a new conference on the amygdala, a structure that is involved in processing of emotion related information. Dysfunction of this structure is thought to lead to a variety of anxiety related disorders such as post traumatic stress and panic attacks. This conference will bring together a range of experts from scientists to clinicians to discuss current advances in the function and dysfunction of the amygdala.