title: Neural activity in monkey amygdala during performance of a multisensory operant task.
abstract: In this paper, we study the potential involvement of monkey amygdala in the evaluation of value encoding of visual and auditive stimuli associated with reward or no reward. We recorded the activity of 93 extracellular neurons from the monkey right amygdala, while performing a multisensory operant task. The activity of 78 task-related neurons was studied. Of these, 13 neurons (16%) responded to the value of visual stimuli, 22 neurons (28%) responded after the presentation of visual stimuli, 22 neurons (28%) showed an inhibition around the lever-pressing and were classified as action related neurons and 22 neurons (28%) responded after reward delivery. These findings suggest that neurons in the amygdala play a role in encoding value and processing visual information, participate in motor regulation and are sensitive to reward. The activity of these neurons did not change in the evaluation of auditive stimuli. These data support the hypothesis that amygdala neurons are specific to each sensory modality and that different groups of amygdala neurons process visual and auditive information.
authors.affiliation: * Center for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases (CIMUS), University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela E-15782, Spain.
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Montes-Lourido
authors.affiliation: * Center for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases (CIMUS), University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela E-15782, Spain.
authors.forename: Ana F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Vicente
authors.affiliation: * Center for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases (CIMUS), University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela E-15782, Spain.
authors.forename: Maria A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Bermudez
authors.affiliation: * Center for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases (CIMUS), University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela E-15782, Spain.|† Department of Surgery, University of Santiago de Compostela, E-15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain.|‡ Service of Ophthalmology and IDIS, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Santiago de Compostela, E-15706 Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000200:Action Potentials; D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology*; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D008839:Microelectrodes; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward; D014741:Video Recording; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Amygdala; auditive stimuli; operant task; rhesus monkey; visual stimuli