title: Associative Pavlovian conditioning leads to an increase in spinophilin-immunoreactive dendritic spines in the lateral amygdala.
abstract: Changes in dendritic spine number and shape are believed to reflect structural plasticity consequent to learning. Previous studies have strongly suggested that the dorsal subnucleus of the lateral amygdala is an important site of physiological plasticity in Pavlovian fear conditioning. In the present study, we examined the effect of auditory fear conditioning on dendritic spine numbers in the dorsal subnucleus of the lateral amygdala using an immunolabelling procedure to visualize the spine-associated protein spinophilin. Associatively conditioned rats that received paired tone and shock presentations had 35% more total spinophilin-immunoreactive spines than animals that had unpaired stimulation, consistent with the idea that changes in the number of dendritic spines occur during learning and account in part for memory.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Neuronal Structure and Function, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. radley@salk.edu
authors.forename: Jason J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Radley
authors.forename: Luke R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: William G M
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Janssen
authors.forename: Jeremiah
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Martino
authors.forename: Raphael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lamprecht
authors.forename: Patrick R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Hof
authors.forename: Joseph E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: LeDoux
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Morrison
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000679:Amygdala / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D049229:Dendritic Spines / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000009:adverse effects; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008840:Microfilament Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013569:Synapses / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D000099273:Neurabins
chemical_list: D008840:Microfilament Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D000099273:Neurabins