Faculty Collaboration Database

Calcitonin gene-related peptide released within the amygdala is involved in Pavlovian auditory fear conditioning. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2001 Mar;75(2):149-63

Date

02/27/2001

Pubmed ID

11222057

DOI

10.1006/nlme.2000.3963

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-0035706090 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   30 Citations

Abstract

The effects of CGRP and the CGRP receptor antagonist hCGRP(8-37) injected into the amygdala on both the acquisition and expression of fear behavior to a discrete auditory conditional stimulus (CS) and the training context were assessed. In Experiment 1, pretraining injections of CGRP but not hCGRP(8-37) produced fear-like behavior before any aversive stimuli were presented. While both compounds attenuated freezing to the contextual CS on the test day, neither affected learning about the auditory CS. In Experiment 2, pretesting injections of hCGRP(8-37) (0.63 mM) selectively attenuated freezing to the auditory CS but left freezing to the contextual CS intact. These data suggest that CGRP in the amygdala may selectively contribute to the expression of learning about auditory stimuli during fear conditioning.

Author List

Kocorowski LH, Helmstetter FJ

Author

Fred Helmstetter PhD Professor in the Psychology / Neuroscience department at University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Amygdala
Animals
Auditory Perception
Brain Mapping
Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide
Conditioning, Classical
Dominance, Cerebral
Fear
Male
Rats
Rats, Long-Evans
Receptors, Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide