2007 Amygdala in Health & Disease Gordon Research Conference

描述(申请人提供)：健康和疾病中的杏仁核：对情绪记忆的贡献杏仁核是构成边缘系统一部分的颞叶结构，在情绪处理中起着关键作用。自从Kluver和Bucy的经典实验以来，它与动物的恐惧和焦虑的相关性已经广为人知，他们在猴子的颞叶中段进行了损害，并发现对这些动物的情感和社会行为产生了深远的影响。当杏仁核在恐惧条件反射中的作用被确立后，对杏仁核的研究重点大大扩大。恐惧条件反射是一项简单的巴甫洛夫条件反射任务，其中中性刺激与厌恶刺激偶然配对。这种学习任务的简单性质，以及随之而来的容易测量的生理变化，使恐惧条件作用的研究成为学习和记忆巩固研究的一个非常有吸引力的目标。由于作为恐惧条件作用基础的神经回路很简单，而且似乎在物种之间保存着，它为研究哺乳动物神经系统中学习和记忆的形成提供了一个容易获得的模型。动物和人类恐惧在生理上的相似性使得恐惧条件作用与人类焦虑症的发生密切相关。此外，最近的研究表明，杏仁核功能的变化可能在更普遍的情况下对药物成瘾等病理形式的情绪学习起到作用。因此，人们对杏仁核功能的兴趣在动物和人体实验中都吸引了越来越多的兴趣，这些实验既使用简单的行为测试，也使用功能成像。这次会议是戈登关于杏仁核功能的第一次会议，将集中研究杏仁核在正常和病理性情绪记忆形成中的作用。它将在电生理、分子和行为水平上涵盖动物研究中这种记忆形成的生理方面。杏仁核功能的病理方面将由研究人类受试者的演讲者涵盖，并将讨论情绪处理的功能和病理方面，以及动物和人类对杏仁核功能的研究之间的关系。这项申请是为了为一次关于杏仁核的新会议提供资金，杏仁核是一种参与情绪相关信息处理的结构。这一结构的功能障碍被认为会导致各种与焦虑相关的障碍，如创伤后应激障碍和恐慌症发作。这次会议将汇集从科学家到临床医生的一系列专家，讨论杏仁核功能和功能障碍的最新进展。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The amygdala in health and disease: contributions to emotional memories The amygdala, a temporal lobe structure that forms part of the limbic system, plays a key role in emotional processing. Its relevance to fear and anxiety in animals has been well known since the classic experiments of Kluver and Bucy, who made mid-temporal lesions in monkeys and found profound effects on the emotional and social behavior of these animals. Focus on studies of the amygdala expanded greatly when its role in fear conditioning was established. Fear conditioning is a simple Pavlovian conditioning task in which a neutral stimulus is contingently paired with an aversive stimulus. The simple nature of this learning task, and the readily measured physiological changes that accompany it, have made the study of fear conditioning a very attractive target for the study of learning and memory consolidation. As the neural circuitry that underlies fear conditioning is simple and appears to be preserved between species, it presents an accessible model for the study of learning and memory formation in the mammalian nervous system. The physiological similarities between animal and human fear makes fear conditioning very relevant to the genesis of anxiety disorders in humans. Moreover, recent research indicates that changes in amygdala function may contribute more generally to pathological forms of emotional learning such as drug addiction. Interest in amygdala function has therefore attracted growing interest in both animal and human experiments using both simple behavioral tests and functional imaging. This conference is the first Gordon conference on Amygdala function and will focus on research investigating the role of the amygdala in the formation of emotional memories, both normal and pathological. It will cover the physiological aspects of this memory formation in animal studies at the electrophysiological, molecular and behavioral level. The pathological aspects of amygdala function will be covered by speakers working on human subjects and will address both functional and pathological aspects of emotional processing as well as the relationship between animal and human studies of amygdala function. This application is to provide funding for a new conference on the amygdala, a structure that is involved in processing of emotion related information. Dysfunction of this structure is thought to lead to a variety of anxiety related disorders such as post traumatic stress and panic attacks. This conference will bring together a range of experts from scientists to clinicians to discuss current advances in the function and dysfunction of the amygdala.