title: Severe stress hormone conditions cause an extended window of excitability in the mouse basolateral amygdala.
abstract: Shortly after stress, basolateral amygdala neurons are exposed to sequential yet partly overlapping waves of hormones. We examined how these hormonal waves can change activity of basolateral amygdala neurons such that emotional aspects of stress become so deeply ingrained. To this end, spontaneous glutamatergic transmission was recorded during and up to several hours after combined adrenergic and corticosteroid waves, targeting the time-window relevant for encoding of stress-related information. Hormonal waves mimicking moderately stressful conditions cause a transient enhancement followed by later suppression of glutamatergic transmission. However, this late phase flips from suppressed to enhanced glutamatergic transmission with conditions mimicking severe stress. Such a prolonged window of enhanced excitability may contribute to the excessively strong encoding seen after the experience of highly stressful or traumatic events.
authors.affiliation: Dept. Translational Neuroscience, Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands. Electronic address: h.karst@umcutrecht.nl.
authors.forename: Henk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Karst
authors.affiliation: Dept. Translational Neuroscience, Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Joëls
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D066272:Basolateral Nuclear Complex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D003345:Corticosterone / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000633:toxicity; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D019706:Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D007545:Isoproterenol / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000633:toxicity; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D007545:Isoproterenol; D003345:Corticosterone
keywords: Consolidation; Corticosterone; Metaplasticity; Noradrenaline; PTSD; mEPSC