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。雄性 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 内侧杏仁核（MeA）和后内侧杏仁核（MeP），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， 但无法激活MeP。催产素敲除小鼠（OTKO）无法识别它们具有的同种 以前遇到过。内侧杏仁核中的cFos模式表明， 刺激动物因此，催产素（OT）可能介导犁鼻肌的信号 在内侧杏仁核中的“下游”系统允许信号的延续。这些和其他数据 表明催产素（OT）可能影响内侧杏仁核对社会相关和非社会相关的反应， 相关刺激不同。这项建议将调查OT的影响，在内侧杏仁核的反应， 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.