Chemosensory Processing in the Amygdala

化学感觉信号激活犁鼻和主要嗅觉通路上的沿着脑区。在雄性仓鼠中，来自同一种动物（同种）的社会相关化学信号激活前内侧杏仁核（MeA）和后内侧杏仁核（MeP），而不激活GABA能闰核（ICN）。来自其他物种的社会非相关化学信号激活MeA和ICN，但不能激活MeP。催产素敲除小鼠（OTKO）无法识别它们以前遇到的同种。内侧杏仁核中的cFos模式表明对刺激动物的异源性反应。因此，催产素（OT）可能介导了来自内侧杏仁核犁鼻系统的信号，从而允许信号的“下游”延续。这些和其他数据表明，催产素（OT）可能会影响内侧杏仁核反应的社会相关和社会无关的刺激不同。本研究将探讨OT在杏仁核内侧区对同种和异种化学感觉刺激的反应。

Chemosensory signals activate brain regions along the vomeronasal and main olfactory pathways. In male hamsters, socially relevant chemosignals.from the same species of animal (conspecific) activate the anterior medal amygdala (MeA) and the posterior medial amygdala (MeP) and do not activate the GABATergic intercalated nucleus (ICN). Socially non-relevant chemosignals from other species activate MeA and ICN, but fail to activate MeP. Oxytocin knockout mice (OTKO) fail to recognize a conspecific that they have encountered previously. The cFos patterns in the medial amygdala suggest a heterospecific-like response to the stimulus animal. Therefore it is possible that oxytocin (OT) mediates the signal from the vomeronasal system in the medial amygdala allowing for "downstream" continuation of the signal. These and other data suggest that oxytocin (OT) may affect medial amygdala responses to socially-relevant and socially nonrelevant stimuli differently. This proposal will investigate OT effects in medial amygdala in response to conspecific and heterospecific chemosensory stimulation.