Department of Psychology, Program in Neuroscience, and Brain Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans, United States.
Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel, Switzerland.
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2018 Apr;49:141-147. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2018.02.009. Epub 2018 Mar 6.
The central nucleus of the amygdala (CEA) is a striatum-like structure orchestrating a diverse set of adaptive behaviors, including defensive and appetitive responses [1-3]. Studies using anatomical, electrophysiological, imaging and optogenetic approaches revealed that the CEA network consists of recurrent inhibitory circuits comprised of precisely connected functionally and genetically defined cell types that can select and control specific behavioral outputs [3,4,5,6,7-9,11,12]. While bivalent functionality of the CEA in adaptive behavior has been clearly demonstrated, we are just beginning to understand to which degree individual CEA circuit elements are functionally segregated or overlapping. Importantly, recent studies seem to suggest that optogenetic manipulations of the same, or overlapping cell populations can give rise to distinct, or sometimes even opposite, behavioral phenotypes [5,6,9-12]. In this review, we discuss recent progress in our understanding of how defined CEA circuits can control defensive and appetitive behaviors, and how seemingly contradictory results could point to an integrated concept of CEA function.
杏仁中央核（CEA）是一种类似纹状体的结构，协调着一系列多样化的适应性行为，包括防御性和食欲性反应[1-3]。使用解剖学、电生理学、成像和光遗传学方法的研究表明，CEA 网络由精确连接的功能和遗传定义的细胞类型组成的递归抑制回路组成，这些细胞类型可以选择和控制特定的行为输出[3,4,5,6,7-9,11,12]。虽然 CEA 在适应性行为中的双重功能已得到明确证实，但我们才刚刚开始了解个体 CEA 电路元件在功能上是如何分离还是重叠的。重要的是，最近的研究似乎表明，对相同或重叠的细胞群体进行光遗传学操作会导致不同的、甚至有时相反的行为表型[5,6,9-12]。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了我们对特定的 CEA 电路如何控制防御性和食欲性行为的理解的最新进展，以及看似矛盾的结果如何指向 CEA 功能的综合概念。
