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Auditory‐amygdalar circuits: An anterograde and retrograde tracing study
Author(s) -
Peterson Diana C
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.26.1_supplement.918.6
Subject(s) - neuroscience , auditory cortex , retrograde tracing , amygdala , glutamatergic , stimulus (psychology) , excitatory postsynaptic potential , anterograde tracing , population , psychology , biology , central nervous system , glutamate receptor , inhibitory postsynaptic potential , medicine , biochemistry , receptor , environmental health , psychotherapist
The amygdala, a brain region that determines stimulus significance, receives auditory information from medial geniculate and auditory cortex and projects back to the auditory system through direct and indirect circuits. The current study utilized retrograde tracing to identify the location of amygdalo‐auditory cortex neurons within the amygdala. Labeled neurons were primarily pyramidal and were located throughout the lateral and basal nuclei of the amygdala. Previous studies have determined that the pyramidal projection neurons are glutamatergic. Therefore a large percentage of this population is likely to have excitatory influences on the target neurons. To determine the termination pattern of these neurons, anterograde tracing studies were performed. We observed both en passant and terminal boutons throughout layers I through IV of primary and secondary auditory cortex. Boutons were much more numerous in layers V and VI, and seemed to target both pyramidal and non‐pyramidal neurons. Although the influence of these projections is yet unknown, the widespread terminal distribution we observed indicates that amygdalar projections influence numerous cortical and sub‐cortical auditory circuits. We hypothesize that these projections alter auditory processing at numerous levels of the auditory system toward relevant environmental cues. Supported by NIDCD R03 DC010245.