Pavlovian fear conditioning activates a common pattern of neurons in the lateral amygdala of individual brains.
Understanding the physical encoding of a memory (the engram) is a fundamental question in neuroscience. Although it has been established that the lateral amygdala is a key site for encoding associative fear memory, it is currently unclear whether the spatial distribution of neurons encoding a given...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2011-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3020219?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1819152804794597376 |
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| author | Hadley C Bergstrom Craig G McDonald Luke R Johnson |
| author_facet | Hadley C Bergstrom Craig G McDonald Luke R Johnson |
| author_sort | Hadley C Bergstrom |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Understanding the physical encoding of a memory (the engram) is a fundamental question in neuroscience. Although it has been established that the lateral amygdala is a key site for encoding associative fear memory, it is currently unclear whether the spatial distribution of neurons encoding a given memory is random or stable. Here we used spatial principal components analysis to quantify the topography of activated neurons, in a select region of the lateral amygdala, from rat brains encoding a Pavlovian conditioned fear memory. Our results demonstrate a stable, spatially patterned organization of amygdala neurons are activated during the formation of a Pavlovian conditioned fear memory. We suggest that this stable neuronal assembly constitutes a spatial dimension of the engram. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T14:55:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b9177cb0300b4404a39992c2f7af0306 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T14:55:07Z |
| publishDate | 2011-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-b9177cb0300b4404a39992c2f7af03062022-12-21T18:22:14ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032011-01-0161e1569810.1371/journal.pone.0015698Pavlovian fear conditioning activates a common pattern of neurons in the lateral amygdala of individual brains.Hadley C BergstromCraig G McDonaldLuke R JohnsonUnderstanding the physical encoding of a memory (the engram) is a fundamental question in neuroscience. Although it has been established that the lateral amygdala is a key site for encoding associative fear memory, it is currently unclear whether the spatial distribution of neurons encoding a given memory is random or stable. Here we used spatial principal components analysis to quantify the topography of activated neurons, in a select region of the lateral amygdala, from rat brains encoding a Pavlovian conditioned fear memory. Our results demonstrate a stable, spatially patterned organization of amygdala neurons are activated during the formation of a Pavlovian conditioned fear memory. We suggest that this stable neuronal assembly constitutes a spatial dimension of the engram.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3020219?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Hadley C Bergstrom Craig G McDonald Luke R Johnson Pavlovian fear conditioning activates a common pattern of neurons in the lateral amygdala of individual brains. PLoS ONE |
| title | Pavlovian fear conditioning activates a common pattern of neurons in the lateral amygdala of individual brains. |
| title_full | Pavlovian fear conditioning activates a common pattern of neurons in the lateral amygdala of individual brains. |
| title_fullStr | Pavlovian fear conditioning activates a common pattern of neurons in the lateral amygdala of individual brains. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pavlovian fear conditioning activates a common pattern of neurons in the lateral amygdala of individual brains. |
| title_short | Pavlovian fear conditioning activates a common pattern of neurons in the lateral amygdala of individual brains. |
| title_sort | pavlovian fear conditioning activates a common pattern of neurons in the lateral amygdala of individual brains |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3020219?pdf=render |
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