Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA.
Medical Scientist Training Program, Renaissance School of Medicine at SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA.
Nat Commun. 2023 Nov 9;14(1):7231. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-43066-9.
The auditory striatum, a sensory portion of the dorsal striatum, plays an essential role in learning and memory. In contrast to its roles and underlying mechanisms in operant conditioning, however, little is known about its contribution to classical auditory fear conditioning. Here, we reveal the function of the auditory striatum in auditory-conditioned fear memory. We find that optogenetically inhibiting auditory striatal neurons impairs fear memory formation, which is mediated through the striatal-amygdala pathway. Using calcium imaging in behaving mice, we find that auditory striatal neuronal responses to conditioned tones potentiate across memory acquisition and expression. Furthermore, nigrostriatal dopaminergic projections plays an important role in modulating conditioning-induced striatal potentiation. Together, these findings demonstrate the existence of a nigro-striatal-amygdala circuit for conditioned fear memory formation and expression.
听觉纹状体是背侧纹状体的感觉部分，在学习和记忆中起着至关重要的作用。然而，与它在操作性条件反射中的作用和潜在机制相比，人们对其在经典听觉恐惧条件反射中的贡献知之甚少。在这里，我们揭示了听觉纹状体在听觉条件性恐惧记忆中的作用。我们发现，光遗传学抑制听觉纹状体神经元会损害恐惧记忆的形成，这是通过纹状体-杏仁核途径介导的。通过对行为小鼠进行钙成像，我们发现听觉纹状体神经元对条件音调的反应在记忆获取和表达过程中会增强。此外，黑质纹状体多巴胺能投射在调节条件诱导的纹状体增强中起着重要作用。综上所述，这些发现表明存在一个黑质-纹状体-杏仁核回路，用于条件性恐惧记忆的形成和表达。
