TY - JOUR T1 - Bidirectional Control of Risk-Seeking Behavior by the Basolateral Amygdala JF - eneuro JO - eNeuro DO - 10.1523/ENEURO.0168-18.2018 VL - 5 IS - 4 SP - ENEURO.0168-18.2018 AU - J. Miguel Cisneros-Franco AU - Etienne de Villers-Sidani Y1 - 2018/07/01 UR - http://www.eneuro.org/content/5/4/ENEURO.0168-18.2018.abstract N2 - Decision-making under risk entails the possibility of simultaneously receiving positive (reward) and negative (punishment) stimuli. To learn in this context, one must integrate conflicting information related to the magnitude of reward and the probability of punishment. Long-term inactivation of the basolateral amygdala (BLA) disrupts this process and increases risky behavior. In a recent study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, Orsini et al. (2017) showed that briefly inhibiting the BLA may result in increased or decreased risk-taking behavior, depending on the phase of the decision process in which BLA activity is disrupted. Here, we discuss the results and propose future experiments that could improve our understanding of how the BLA contributes to adaptive learning under risk and uncertainty.In complex, “real-world” environments, choices made may result in both rewards and adverse outcomes, each associated with different and often-changing probabilities. Decision-making under risk and uncertainty requires sustained attention and constant updating of learned rules to adequately valuate available alternatives. During risky decision-making, rewarding or punishing outcomes encountered following each decision facilitate learning through positive or negative reinforcement, respectively (Wächter et al., 2009). How individuals react to such competing environmental cues has been the focus of numerous studies in decision neuroscience (Preuschoff et al., 2015). These studies show that cultural, social, and genetic factors shape risk preference, although transient internal states, such as mood, fatigue, or recent experience, may also influence an individual’s propensity to risk-taking (Weber and Johnson, 2009).Located at the crossroads of corticolimbic circuits that mediate reinforcement learning, the basolateral amygdala (BLA) responds to arousing stimuli of both positive and negative valence (Shabel and Janak, 2009) and is necessary for the establishment of reward associations (Baxter and Murray, 2002) and fear conditioning (Krabbe et al., 2017). This functional heterogeneity … ER -