Antagonistic negative and positive neurons of the basolateral amygdala

• Main Authors: Itohara, Shigeyoshi (Author), Kim, Joshua (Contributor), Pignatelli di Spinazzola, Michele (Contributor), Xu, Sangyu (Contributor), Tonegawa, Susumu (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (Contributor), Picower Institute for Learning and Memory (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group, 2018-07-10T19:48:45Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is a site of convergence of negative and positive stimuli and is critical for emotional behaviors and associations. However, the neural substrate for negative and positive behaviors and relationship between negative and positive representations in the basolateral amygdala are unknown. Here we identify two genetically distinct, spatially segregated populations of excitatory neurons in the mouse BLA that participate in valence-specific behaviors and are connected through mutual inhibition. These results identify a genetically defined neural circuit for the antagonistic control of emotional behaviors and memories.
National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant T32GM007287)