Norepinephrine enables the induction of associative long-term potentiation at thalamo-amygdala synapses

@article{citeulike:1581972, abstract = {Edited by James L. McGaugh, University of California, Irvine, CA, and approved July 19, 2007 (received for review May 16, 2007)Emotional arousal, linked to a surge of norepinephrine (NE) in the amygdala, leads to creation of stronger and longer-lasting memories. However, little is known about the synaptic mechanisms of such modulatory NE influences. Long-term potentiation (LTP) in auditory inputs to the lateral nucleus of the amygdala was recently linked to the acquisition of fear memory. Therefore we explored whether LTP induction at thalamo-amygdala projections, conveying the acoustic conditioned stimulus information to the amygdala during fear conditioning, is under adrenergic control. Using whole-cell recordings from amygdala slices, we show that NE suppresses GABAergic inhibition of projection neurons in the lateral amygdala and enables the induction of LTP at thalamo-amygdala synapses under conditions of intact GABAA receptor-mediated inhibition. Our data indicate that the NE effects on the efficacy of inhibition could result from a decrease in excitability of local circuit interneurons, without direct effects of NE on release machinery of the GABA-containing vesicles or the size of single-quanta postsynaptic GABAA receptor-mediated responses. Thus, adrenergic modulation of local interneurons may contribute to the formation of fear memory by gating LTP in the conditioned stimulus pathways. 10.1073/pnas.0704621104}, author = {Tully, Keith and Li, Yan and Tsvetkov, Evgeny and Bolshakov, Vadim Y. }, citeulike-article-id = {1581972}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.0704621104}, journal = {PNAS}, keywords = {amygdala, fear-conditioning, ltp, neuromodulators, norepinephrine}, month = {August}, pages = {0704621104+}, posted-at = {2007-08-22 09:42:21}, priority = {2}, title = {Norepinephrine enables the induction of associative long-term potentiation at thalamo-amygdala synapses}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0704621104}, year = {2007} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1581972 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1581972 TI - Norepinephrine enables the induction of associative long-term potentiation at thalamo-amygdala synapses JF - PNAS SP - 0704621104 N2 - Edited by James L. McGaugh, University of California, Irvine, CA, and approved July 19, 2007 (received for review May 16, 2007)Emotional arousal, linked to a surge of norepinephrine (NE) in the amygdala, leads to creation of stronger and longer-lasting memories. However, little is known about the synaptic mechanisms of such modulatory NE influences. Long-term potentiation (LTP) in auditory inputs to the lateral nucleus of the amygdala was recently linked to the acquisition of fear memory. Therefore we explored whether LTP induction at thalamo-amygdala projections, conveying the acoustic conditioned stimulus information to the amygdala during fear conditioning, is under adrenergic control. Using whole-cell recordings from amygdala slices, we show that NE suppresses GABAergic inhibition of projection neurons in the lateral amygdala and enables the induction of LTP at thalamo-amygdala synapses under conditions of intact GABAA receptor-mediated inhibition. Our data indicate that the NE effects on the efficacy of inhibition could result from a decrease in excitability of local circuit interneurons, without direct effects of NE on release machinery of the GABA-containing vesicles or the size of single-quanta postsynaptic GABAA receptor-mediated responses. Thus, adrenergic modulation of local interneurons may contribute to the formation of fear memory by gating LTP in the conditioned stimulus pathways. 10.1073/pnas.0704621104 KW - amygdala KW - fear-conditioning KW - ltp KW - neuromodulators KW - norepinephrine AU - Tully, Keith AU - Li, Yan AU - Tsvetkov, Evgeny AU - Bolshakov, Vadim PY - 2007/08/20/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0704621104 ER -