Elsevier

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 83, Issue 10, 15 May 2018, Pages 800-809
Biological Psychiatry

Review
Amygdala Inhibitory Circuits Regulate Associative Fear Conditioning

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.10.006Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Abstract

Associative memory formation is essential for an animal’s survival by ensuring adaptive behavioral responses in an ever-changing environment. This is particularly important under conditions of immediate threats such as in fear learning. One of the key brain regions involved in associative fear learning is the amygdala. The basolateral amygdala is the main entry site for sensory information to the amygdala complex, and local plasticity in excitatory basolateral amygdala principal neurons is considered to be crucial for learning of conditioned fear responses. However, activity and plasticity of excitatory circuits are tightly controlled by local inhibitory interneurons in a spatially and temporally defined manner. In this review, we provide an updated view on how distinct interneuron subtypes in the basolateral amygdala contribute to the acquisition and extinction of conditioned fear memories.

Keywords

Amygdala
Extinction
Fear learning
Interneuron
Neuronal circuits
Plasticity

Cited by (0)