title: Calcitonin gene-related peptide released within the amygdala is involved in Pavlovian auditory fear conditioning.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201, USA.
authors.forename: L H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Kocorowski
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Helmstetter
mesh_terms: D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D015740:Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide / Q000502:physiology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D018015:Receptors, Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D018015:Receptors, Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide; D015740:Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide