Amygdala-ventral striatum circuit activation decreases long-term fear.
In humans, activation of the ventral striatum, a region associated with reward processing, is associated with the extinction of fear, a goal in the treatment of fear-related disorders. This evidence suggests that extinction of aversive memories engages reward-related circuits, but a causal relationship between activity in a reward circuit and fear extinction has not been demonstrated. Here, we identify a basolateral amygdala (BLA)-ventral striatum (NAc) pathway that is activated by extinction training. Enhanced recruitment of this circuit during extinction learning, either by pairing reward with fear extinction training or by optogenetic stimulation of this circuit during fear extinction, reduces the return of fear that normally follows extinction training. Our findings thus identify a specific BLA-NAc reward circuit that can regulate the persistence of fear extinction and point toward a potential therapeutic target for disorders in which the return of fear following extinction therapy is an obstacle to treatment.
McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States.|Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States.
Susana S
SS
Correia
McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States.|Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States.
Anna G
AG
McGrath
McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States.|Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States.
Allison
A
Lee
McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States.|Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States.
Ann M
AM
Graybiel
McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States.|Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States.
Ki A
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5246-2261
KA
Goosens
basolateral amygdala; fear extinction; infralimbic cortex; neuroscience; nucleus accumbens; prelimbic cortex; rat; reward conditioning
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