Prefrontal and amygdalar pathways to memory-related medial temporal cortex

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议研究的目标是调查前额叶和杏仁核通路对内侧颞叶（MTL）记忆相关皮质的贡献。最重要的假设是，这些通路与MTL鼻皮质的相互作用构成了一个回路，将注意力背景与情感和记忆信息整合在一起。前扣带内侧前额叶皮质（ACC）的尾侧部分被认为参与监测与先前学习结果的记忆有关的持续行为，但该皮质的通路如何影响MTL尚不清楚。最近的证据表明，内侧前额叶皮质促进MTL的鼻皮质之间的通信。这些研究结果表明，ACC在皮质海马处理中起着重要作用，这一问题的事实，即信息传递，无论是到，从海马门控通过局部抑制鼻腔皮质内复杂。本研究将探讨恒河猴MTL内ACC和杏仁核与兴奋性和抑制性系统的突触相互作用，以研究：1）内侧前额叶皮质向鼻皮质的投射; 2）ACC轴突是否与鼻皮质中不同类别的抑制性和兴奋性回路形成突触; 3）前扣带回和杏仁核的投射是否定位在鼻腔皮质中协同作用。将用多种不同的神经示踪剂结合双重或三重标记免疫组织化学标记前额通路，以映射MTL内的轴突终止以及兴奋性和抑制性神经元。将在光学、共聚焦和电子显微镜水平收集数据，用于定量分析。了解前扣带回和杏仁核如何影响鼻皮层记忆回路，以及注意力背景如何与记忆和情感信息整合，对于理解名义记忆功能和深入了解焦虑症中观察到的病理至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the proposed studies is to investigate the contribution of prefrontal and amygdalar pathways to memory-related cortices in the medial temporal lobe (MTL). The overarching hypothesis is that the interaction of these pathways with MTL rhinal cortices constitutes a circuit that integrates attentional context with emotional and mnemonic information. The caudal portion of the medial prefrontal cortex in the anterior cingulate (ACC) is thought to be involved in monitoring on-going behavior pertaining to memory of previously learned outcomes, but how pathways from this cortex impinge on the MTL is not well understood. Recent evidence has shown that the medial prefrontal cortex facilitates communication between the rhinal cortices of the MTL. These findings suggest that ACC plays an important role in corticohippocampal processing, an issue compounded by the fact that information transfer, both to, and from the hippocampus is gated via local inhibition within the rhinal cortices. The proposed studies will address the largely unexplored synaptic interactions of the ACC and amygdala with excitatory and inhibitory systems within the rhesus monkey MTL to investigate: 1) projections from the medial prefrontal cortex to rhinal cortices; 2) whether ACC axons synapse with distinct classes of inhibitory and excitatory circuits in rhinal cortices; 3) whether projections from the ACC and amygdala are positioned to act synergistically in rhinal cortices. Prefrontal pathways will be labeled with multiple distinct neural tracers combined with double or triple labeling immunohistochemistry to map axonal terminations as well as excitatory and inhibitory neurons within MTL. Data will be collected at the light, confocal and electron microscope level for quantitative analyses. Understanding how the ACC and the amygdala impinge upon the rhinal cortical mnemonic circuit, and by extension how attentional context is integrated with mnemonic and emotional information, is critical for understanding nominal memory function and for gaining insight into the pathologies observed in anxiety disorders.