THE AMYGDALA – A DISCRETE MULTITASKING MANAGER Edited by Barbara Ferry The Amygdala – A Discrete Multitasking Manager http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/2973 Edited by Barbara Ferry Contributors Juan Pedro Vargas, Juan Carlos López, Manuel Portavella, Miguel Ángel Bertoni, Gina L. Forster, Andrew M. Novick, Jamie L. Scholl, Michael J. Watt, Ryong-Moon Shin, Sodikdjon A. Kodirov, Satish S. Nair, Candice M. Chavez, James L. McGaugh, Norman M. Weinberger, Barbara Ferry, Gina L. Quirarte, Rodrigo Moraga-Amaro, Jimmy Stehberg, Andrés Molero Chamizo, Trevor H. Gilbert, Xiaodan Yan, Dong Hoon Oh, Bruno Bonaz, Sonia Pellissier, Valérie Sinniger, Didier Clarençon, André Peinnequin, Frédéric Canini, Shira Knafo, Elisabeth Petrasch- Parwez, Hans-Werner Habbes, Marlen Löbbecke-Schumacher, Carsten Saft, Jennifer Niescery Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2012 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. 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ISBN 978-953-51-0908-2 Contents Preface IX Chapter 1 Amygdala and Emotional Learning in Vertebrates – A Comparative Perspective 1 Juan Pedro Vargas, Juan Carlos López and Manuel Portavella Chapter 2 Neuroimaging of the Amygdala: Quantitative Mechanistic Approach 33 Miguel Ángel Bertoni Chapter 3 The Role of the Amygdala in Anxiety Disorders 61 Gina L. Forster, Andrew M. Novick, Jamie L. Scholl and Michael J. Watt Chapter 4 Cellular Mechanisms in the Amygdala Involved in Memory of Fear Conditioning 103 Ryong-Moon Shin Chapter 5 The Role of Norepinephrine in Amygdala Dependent Fear Learning and Memory 121 Sodikdjon A. Kodirov Chapter 6 Auditory Fear Circuits in the Amygdala – Insights from Computational Models 141 Satish S. Nair Chapter 7 Amygdala Strengthening of Cortical Memory Representations 171 Candice M. Chavez, James L. McGaugh and Norman M. Weinberger Chapter 8 Role of Norepinephrine in Modulating Inhibitory Avoidance Memory Storage: Critical Involvement of the Basolateral Amygdala 203 Barbara Ferry and Gina L. Quirarte VI Contents Chapter 9 The Insular Cortex and the Amygdala: Shared Functions and Interactions 231 Rodrigo Moraga-Amaro and Jimmy Stehberg Chapter 10 Amygdala and Taste Learning 257 Andrés Molero Chamizo Chapter 11 Amygdalar Models of Neurological and Neuropsychiatric Disorders 285 Trevor H. Gilbert Chapter 12 Amygdala, Childhood Adversity and Psychiatric Disorders 303 Xiaodan Yan Chapter 13 Traumatic Experiences Disrupt Amygdala – Prefrontal Connectivity 325 Dong Hoon Oh Chapter 14 The Irritable Bowel Syndrome: How Stress Can Affect the Amygdala Activity and the Brain-Gut Axis 339 Bruno Bonaz, Sonia Pellissier, Valérie Sinniger, Didier Clarençon, André Peinnequin and Frédéric Canini Chapter 15 Amygdala in Alzheimer's Disease 375 Shira Knafo Chapter 16 The Ventral Striatopallidum and Extended Amygdala in Huntington Disease 385 Elisabeth Petrasch-Parwez, Hans-Werner Habbes, Marlen Löbbecke-Schumacher, Carsten Saft and Jennifer Niescery Preface Among the components of the limbic system, the amygdala is a fascinating structure that is involved in the processes of liking and disliking and in the ways our emotions drive our actions and affect the strength of our memories. Over this past decade, advances in techniques for examining brain activity have led to new insights into the functional contribution of the amygdala to emotions, learning, and related memories. Combined with new conceptual breakthroughs, the research data obtained in animals reviewed in this book have helped uncover the functional contribution of the amygdala to these processes. In addition, and consistent with the relations between amygdala malfunction and the occurrence of a number of disorders that affect the personality and learning abilities, this book presents recent advances in various research areas that provide insights into the contribution of the amygdala to some neurological and neuropsychiatric pathologies, including Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, anxiety and stress disorders (i.e. post-traumatic stress disorder and irritable bowel syndrome) and Huntington disease. In order to address these topics, results from several research fields have been used and the very latest data obtained by leading world experts in different aspects of amygdala function are presented. Of course, due to the rate of research advancement, all the chapters presented here correspond to precise questions addressed by experts using highly specific techniques. All the data presented in each chapter should be viewed as pieces of a puzzle that represent all the different research areas that have to be taken into consideration in discussing the role of the amygdala in emotion and memory. Eighteen years ago, when I started my research on the amygdala, it was already a hot topic and our knowledge about its role in emotion, learning, and memory was growing very fast. Because of the speed at which new data were being published, I felt the mystery shrouding the amygdala would soon disappear. However, time has passed and the amygdala is still in the spotlight. The fascination and excitation X Preface aroused by the functional complexity of this structure never seem to vanish and there is ample reason to believe that studies relating learning and memory to their neural substrates will continue as a result of the many advances in the use of new investigation tools. In this context, the discovery and the use of new techniques will certainly contribute to progress in amygdala research. Although the primary goal of this book is to inform experts and newcomers of some of the latest data in the field of brain structures involved in mechanisms underlying emotional learning and memory, I hope it will also help to stimulate discussion on the functional role of the amygdala and connected brain structures in these mechanisms. Barbara Ferry, Ph.D. Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon Université Claude Bernard Lyon France [...]... of genetical markers along vertebrates’ brains evolution In the case of amygdala of tetrapods (Medina et al., 2011) is composed of four different regions: ventral pallial amygdala (i.e basal amygdala of mammals, dorsal ventricular ridge in reptiles and birds), striatal amygdala (i.e the central nucleus in different groups), pallidal amygdala (medial amygdala of amniotes) and hypothalamical part present... (Amaral et al., 1992; Pitkänen et al., 1997), it is clear that lesions of a large part of the nucleus of the pallial amygdala (basolateral amygdala) and also the subpallial part seriously affect all type of emotional learning In fish, the ablation of Dmv telencephalon induced a clear deficit in a conditioned avoidance behavior, similar to that produced after a complete ablation of the 16 The Amygdala. .. to the amygdala as the medial division of medial geniculate nucleus) can prevent the animal to be conditioned to a stimulus of that sensory modality (auditory), but not to another of different modality, such as visual (Campeau & Davis, 1995) On the other hand, different results show that the thalamo -amygdala and the thalamo-cortico -amygdala pathways are equipotential with the facilitation of classical... possible that the amygdala or analogous structure was present in an ancestor of current vertebrates Its function was necessary for the adaptative processes, and it was conserved along the vertebrate radiation (figure 1) 2 The amygdala Homologies among vertebrates As noted previously, the amygdala of mammals and other tetrapods is divided into two main parts, one pallial or cortical, and another subpallial... environment, like in the human case, the amygdala has a crucial role Neuroimaging studies has been shown that the amygdala functions as a relevance detector that allows humans to perceive incongruence in the emotional expressions, or fear (Phelps & LeDoux, 2005), although others argue that the amygdala activation is more indirect in these cases (van der Gaag et al., 2007) In humans, the amygdala shares common... emotional response (as the cardiac acceleration that occurs paired with a shock) in Columba livia (Cohen, 1975, Dafter, 1976) When an active avoidance is used, the arquipallial lesion produces the same deficit for the acquisition of a avoidance response that the lesion of the mammalian amygdala (Dafter, 1975) In the case of active avoidance, the arquipallial lesion produces the same deficit in the acquisition... afferents of the lateral nucleus are directed to other amygdalar structures including the pallial basal and basal accessory nuclei too (Pitkänen & Amaral, 1991) The basal nucleus (basal and basal accessory) receives input from the hippocampus and cortical association areas such as inferotemporal cortex and other structures (Amaral et al., 1992), and sends efferents to the sensory association cortex and the. .. active avoidance behavior in rats, the defense amygdalar region, and the basolateral complex Partial or total lesion to the defense amygdalar region (in rats and cats including the ventral part of the internal capsule and the ventral amigdalofugal pathway and pallial and subpallian structures), suppressed defense responses including the escape response (Blanchard & Blanchard, 1972; Kemble et al., 1984;... and the subpallial amygdala (Braford, 1995; Bruce & Neary, 1995; Neary, 1990; Neary & Bruce, 1993; Northcutt & Kicliter, 1980) Other authors (Kyle & Peter, 1982; Kyle et al., 1982) have pointed to the region Vs- 4 The Amygdala – A Discrete Multitasking Manager pVv (ventral area supracomisural ventral-ventral area) as homologous to the corticomedial amygdala, based on the fact that it receives olfactory... had a brain with a structure functionally similar to the amygdala, and because of its adaptive value, it was conserved throughout the phylogeny It is considered that the amygdala is not an exclusive structure of mammals, since genoarchitectonic, neurochemical, embryological, anatomical, and behavioral studies in a Amygdala and Emotional Learning in Vertebrates – A Comparative Perspective 3 comparative . THE AMYGDALA – A DISCRETE MULTITASKING MANAGER Edited by Barbara Ferry The Amygdala – A Discrete Multitasking Manager http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/2973. including the amygdala (Johansen et al., 2011). The Amygdala – A Discrete Multitasking Manager 8 3.3. Amygdala and avoidance conditioning The studies