The brain contains specialized for systems that govern emotions and behavior in the presence of danger. Dysfunction of these systems may be responsible for many common psychiatric disorders, including phobia, panic attacks, post-traumatic stress disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. A better understanding of the brain's fear systems may lead to more effective tretments for such disorders. The amygdala is well known to be an essential component of the brain's fear systems. The research proposed here will investigate the amygdala's role in two processes: (1) learning to recognize danger, and () learning to respond to danger appropriately. Rats will be trained in auditory fear conditioning, an amygdala-dependent memory task in which an innocuous auditory tone is paired with electric shock. During this task, rats learn that the tone predicts danger (the shock). The activity of neurons in the amygdala will be recorded as rats learn this task, to test whether emotional memories are stored in the amygdala by a process of Hebbian synaptic plasticity. After rats have learned the task, they will be taught to escape from the tone (which now predicts danger) by navigating through an open doorway. Neural activity will be recorded in the amygdala as rats learn to escape from the tone, to investigate how the amygdala participates in learning new responses to danger. This research may provide new insights into the neural mechanisms for emotional learning and memory.
