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Differential activation of hippocampus and amygdala following spatial learning under stress
Author(s) -
Akirav Irit,
Sandi Carmen,
RichterLevin Gal
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
european journal of neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.346
H-Index - 206
eISSN - 1460-9568
pISSN - 0953-816X
DOI - 10.1046/j.0953-816x.2001.01687.x
Subject(s) - amygdala , hippocampus , neuroscience , psychology , spatial learning , task (project management) , water maze , stress (linguistics) , linguistics , philosophy , management , economics
We examined the activation of memory‐related processes in the hippocampus and the amygdala following spatial learning under stress, in the rat. Animals were trained in a water maze in a massed spatial task under two stress conditions (cold and warm water). In the dorsal CA1, training was accompanied by increased phosphorylation of ERK2 only in animals that have acquired the task (irrespective of whether they were trained in cold or warm water). In the amygdala, significant activation of ERK2 was found only in animals that learned the task well under high levels of stress. Hence, the results suggest that the amygdala and the hippocampus are differentially activated following spatial learning, depending on the level of stress involved.