title: The central amygdala is involved in conditioning but not in retention of active and passive shock avoidance in male rats.
abstract: The present study was designed to further characterize the involvement of the central amygdaloid nucleus (CEA) in the conditioning and the retention of both active and passive stress-related behaviors. Active shock avoidance was investigated in a shuttle-box. CEA-lesioned and sham-operated animals received 30 trials on 2 consecutive days. During the first day of conditioning, the CEA-lesioned animals failed to learn to avoid, but on the second day these rats showed avoidance behavior that was comparable to the sham-lesioned ones. When lesioned animals received a total of 60 trials on 1 day, they failed to show avoidance, suggesting deficits in acquisition performance but presence of latent learning following CEA lesioning. However, the retention response, which was studied by lesioning the CEA between a 2-day avoidance training and a retention test, was unaffected. Stress-related learning was also studied in a test of passive avoidance of a previously received single, inescapable electric footshock. When the lesion was placed before the single learning trial, the retention of the response was absent. However, CEA-lesioning after the learning trial revealed no differences between the CEA-lesioned and sham-lesioned animals. In conclusion, these results demonstrate that the CEA is involved in the conditioning rather than retention of both active and passive shock avoidance responses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Physiology, University of Groningen, Haren, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Roozendaal
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Koolhaas
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bohus
mesh_terms: D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D008297:Male; D009490:Neurosecretory Systems; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012153:Retention, Psychology
chemical_list: D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents