Fear conditioning occludes late-phase long-term potentiation at thalamic input synapses onto the lateral amygdala in rat brain slices

作者：Hong Ingie; Kim Jeongyeon; Song Beomjong; Park Kyungjoon; Shin Kisoon; Eom Khee Dong; Han Pyung Lim; Lee Sukwon^*; Choi Sukwoo

来源：Neuroscience Letters, 2012, 506(1): 121-125.

DOI：10.1016/j.neulet.2011.10.063

• Amygdala
• Synaptic plasticity
• Learning and memory
• Late-phase LTP
• Depotentiation
• Fear conditioning
• Fear extinction

Late-phase long-term potentiation (L-LTP) of excitatory synaptic transmission at thalamic input synapses onto the lateral amygdala (T-LA synapses) has been proposed as a cellular substrate for long-term fear memory. This notion is evidenced primarily by previous reports in which the same pharmacological treatments block both T-LA L-LTP and the consolidation of fear memory. In this study, we report that fear conditioning occludes L-LTP at T-LA synapses in brain slices prepared after fear memory consolidation. L-LTP was restored either when synaptic depotentiation was induced prior to L-LTP induction in brain slices prepared from conditioned rats or when brain slices were prepared from conditioned rats that had been exposed to subsequent fear extinction, which is a behavior paradigm known to induce in vivo synaptic depotentiation at T-LA synapses. These results suggest that fear conditioning recruits L-LTP-like mechanisms that are reversible and saturable at T-LA synapses.

• 出版日期2012-1-6
• 单位南阳理工学院