Associative Pavlovian conditioning leads to an increase in spinophilin-immunoreactive dendritic spines in the lateral amygdala.
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.
Radley
Jason J
JJ
Laboratory for Neuronal Structure and Function, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. radley@salk.edu
Johnson
Luke R
LR
Janssen
William G M
WG
Martino
Jeremiah
J
Lamprecht
Raphael
R
Hof
Patrick R
PR
LeDoux
Joseph E
JE
Morrison
John H
JH
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
D008840:Microfilament Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D000099273:Neurabins