Chemosensory Processing in the Amygdala

化学感觉信号激活沿犁鼻和主要嗅觉通路的大脑区域。在男性 仓鼠，社会相关的化学信号。来自同一物种的动物(同种)激活前部 杏仁核(MEA)和杏仁后内侧核(MEP)不激活GABA能 间质核(ICN)。来自其他物种的与社会无关的化学信号激活MeA和ICN， 但未能激活MEP。催产素基因敲除小鼠(OTKO)无法识别它们拥有的同种异种 之前遇到过。杏仁内侧核的CFOS模式表明，对 刺激性动物。因此，催产素(OT)可能介导了来自犁鼻的信号。 杏仁内侧核系统，允许信号的“下游”延续。这些数据和其他数据 提示催产素(OT)可能影响杏仁内侧核对社会性相关和非社会性刺激的反应 相关刺激不同。该提案将研究催产素对杏仁内侧核的影响，以回应 同种和异种化学感觉刺激。

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 medialamygdala (MeP) and do not activate theGABATergic 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 non- relevant stimuli differently. This proposal will investigate OT effects in medial amygdala in response to conspecific and heterospecific chemosensory stimulation.