The amygdala and emotionally-mediated sudden cutaneous vasoconstriction in rats

发现大脑如何组织我们的情感生活对于理解精神疾病很重要。在老鼠身上，当动物发现可能的危险事件时，流向皮肤的血流量会下降。老鼠吓得脸色苍白，就像人类一样。用于治疗精神分裂症患者的药物可以抑制血流量的下降。该基金调查了杏仁核是否是控制皮肤血管的重要大脑中心，以及抗精神分裂症药物是否在杏仁核中起作用。

Discovering how the brain organizes our emotional life is important for understanding mental illness. In rats, blood flow to the skin falls when the animal detects a possibly dangerous event. Rats go pale with fright , just as humans do. The falls in blood flow are inhibited by drugs used to treat people with schizophrenia. The grant investigates whether the amygdala is an important brain centre controlling the skin blood vessels, and whether anti-schizophrenia drugs act in the amygdala.