title: Antagonistic negative and positive neurons of the basolateral amygdala.
abstract: The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is a site of convergence of negative and positive stimuli and is critical for emotional behaviors and associations. However, the neural substrate for negative and positive behaviors and relationship between negative and positive representations in the basolateral amygdala are unknown. Here we identify two genetically distinct, spatially segregated populations of excitatory neurons in the mouse BLA that participate in valence-specific behaviors and are connected through mutual inhibition. These results identify a genetically defined neural circuit for the antagonistic control of emotional behaviors and memories.
authors.affiliation: RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Biology and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Biology and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1380-5329
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pignatelli
authors.affiliation: RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Biology and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Sangyu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Brain Science Institute, RIKEN, Saitama, Japan.
authors.forename: Shigeyoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Itohara
authors.affiliation: RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Biology and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.|Brain Science Institute, RIKEN, Saitama, Japan.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tonegawa
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D066272:Basolateral Nuclear Complex / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D051379:Mice; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*