To survive in a complex environment, individuals form associations between environmental stimuli and rewards to organize and optimize reward seeking behaviors. The basolateral amygdala (BLA) uses these learned associations to inform decision-making processes. In this review, we describe functional projections between BLA and its cortical and striatal targets that promote learning and motivational processes central to decision-making. Specifically, we compare and contrast divergent projections from the BLA to the orbitofrontal (OFC) and to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and examine the roles of these pathways in associative learning, value-guided decision-making, choice behaviors, as well as cue and context-driven drug seeking. Finally, we consider how these projections are involved in disorders of motivation, with a focus on Substance Use Disorder.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113306 | DOI Listing |
J Neurosci
January 2025
Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, USA, 27599.
Blunted sensitivity to ethanol's aversive effects can increase motivation to consume ethanol; yet, the neurobiological circuits responsible for encoding these aversive properties are not fully understood. Plasticity in cells projecting from the anterior insular cortex (aIC) to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) is critical for taste aversion learning and retrieval, suggesting this circuit's potential involvement in modulating the aversive properties of ethanol. Here, we tested the hypothesis that GABAergic currents onto aIC-BLA projections would be facilitated as a consequence of retrieval of an ethanol-conditioned taste aversion (CTA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurobiol Dis
January 2025
Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA. Electronic address:
Structural changes involving new neurons can occur through stem cell-driven neurogenesis and late-maturing immature neurons, namely undifferentiated neuronal precursors frozen in a state of arrested maturation. The latter exist in the cerebral cortex, being particularly abundant in large-brained mammals. Similar cells have been described in the amygdala of some species, although their interspecies variation remain poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDominance hierarchies are key to social organization in group-living species, requiring individuals to recognize their own and others' ranks. This is particularly complex for intermediate-ranking animals, who navigate interactions with higher- and lower-ranking individuals. Using in situ hybridization, we examined how the brains of intermediate-ranked mice in hierarchies respond to dominant and subordinate stimuli by labeling activity-induced immediate early genes and neuronal markers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFeNeuro
January 2025
Tufts University School of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience, Boston, MA, USA.
Psychiatric disorders, including anxiety and depression, are highly comorbid in people with epilepsy. However, the mechanisms mediating the shared pathophysiology are currently unknown. There is considerable evidence implicating the basolateral amygdala (BLA) in the network communication of anxiety and fear, a process demonstrated to involve parvalbumin-positive (PV) interneurons.
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