Extinction of Auditory Fear Conditioning Requires Mapk/Erk Activation in the Basolateral Amygdala.
From: Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, CNRS UMR 5106, Université de Bordeaux I, Avenue des Facultés, 33405 Talence, France. cyril.herry@fmi.ch
The European journal of neuroscience
- Publish Date: Jul 2006
- ISSN: 0953-816X
- Volume: 24
- Issue: 1
- Pages: 261-9
- Medium: Print
- Language: English
- Citation (JAMA): Herry Cyril, Trifilieff Pierre, Micheau Jacques, et al. Extinction of Auditory Fear Conditioning Requires Mapk/Erk Activation in the Basolateral Amygdala.. Eur. J. Neurosci. Jul 2006;24:261-9
Abstract
Whereas the neuronal substrates underlying the acquisition of auditory fear conditioning have been widely studied, the substrates and mechanisms mediating the acquisition of fear extinction remain largely elusive. Previous reports indicate that consolidation of fear extinction depends on the mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular-signal regulated kinase (MAPK/ERK) signalling pathway and on protein synthesis in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Based on experiments using the fear-potentiated startle paradigm suggesting a role for neuronal plasticity in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) during fear extinction, we directly addressed whether MAPK/ERK signalling in the basolateral amygdala is necessary for the acquisition of fear extinction using conditioned freezing as a read-out. First, we investigated the regional and temporal pattern of MAPK/ERK activation in the BLA following extinction learning in C57Bl/6J mice. Our results indicate that acquisition of extinction is associated with an increase of phosphorylated MAPK/ERK in the BLA. Moreover, we found that inhibition of the MAPK/ERK signalling pathway by intrabasolateral amygdala infusion of the MEK inhibitor, U0126, completely blocks acquisition of extinction. Thus, our results indicate that the MAPK/ERK signalling pathway is required for extinction of auditory fear conditioning in the BLA, and support a role for neuronal plasticity in the BLA during the acquisition of fear extinction.
Mesh Headings (Keywords): Acoustic Stimulation, Amygdala, Animals, Butadienes, Conditioning, Operant, Extinction, Psychological, Extracellular Signal-Regulated MAP Kinases, Fear, Learning, MAP Kinase Signaling System, Male, Mice, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Nitriles, Phosphorylation, Startle Reaction
Check for Full Text / PubMed Unique Identifier (PMID): 16882022
This abstract is part of PubMed, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. PubMed includes more than 17 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles. See Copyright and Disclaimers.
Linked medical terms appearing on this page are added by Healia to help readers find more information and are not part of the original PubMed document.
The data herein was last updated on July 8th, 2008 and may not reflect the most current and accurate data available from NLM.