BACKGROUND Pain is associated with affective, cognitive and sensory dysfunction. Animal models can be used to observe ethologically relevant behaviours such as thigmotaxis, giving insight into how ongoing sensory abnormalities influence natural rodent behaviours. The amygdala is a complex group of nuclei implicated in the integration and generation of emotional behavioural responses, including ...

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and amygdala are thought to participate in reversal learning, a process in which cue-outcome associations are switched. However, current theories disagree on whether OFC directs reversal learning in the amygdala. Here, we show that during reversal of cues' associations with rewarding and aversive outcomes, neurons that respond preferentially to stimuli predicting ...

Functional neuroimaging studies of emotion processing consistently report amygdala activation. Most of these studies observed lateralized amygdala activity, indicative of a clear hemisphere-specific processing difference between the left and right amygdalae. Because individual studies use varying paradigms and are limited by statistical power and sensitivity, it has remained unclear whether the...

Studies of amygdala functioning have occupied a significant place in the history of understanding how the brain controls behavior and cognition. Early work on the amygdala placed this small structure as a key component in the regulation of emotion and affective behavior. Over time, our understanding of its role in brain processes has expanded, as we have uncovered amygdala influences on memory,...

OBJECTIVES Combat stress can be followed by persistent emotional consequences. It is thought that these emotional consequences are caused in part by increased amygdala reactivity. It is also thought that amygdala hyper-reactivity results from decreased inhibition from portions of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in which activity is negatively correlated with activity in the amygdala. Howeve...

Background: Chronic use of opioids usually results in physical dependence. The underlying mechanisms for this dependence are still being evaluated. Transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1) are important receptors of pain perception. Their role during opioid dependence has not been studied well. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of morphine-dependence on the expressio...

there is strong evidence that two cerebral hemispheres are differentially involved in emotional memory and that amygdala is a key subcortical structure for emotional experience. the present research investigated the possible involvement of lateralization of basolateral amygdala (bla) and central amygdala (cea) in place avoidance memory. for this purpose, male long-evans rats (280-320 g) were im...

The amygdala complex is one component of the temporal lobe that may be damaged unilaterally or bilaterally in children and adults with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) or following status epilepticus. Most MR (magnetic resonance) imaging studies of epileptic patients have shown that volume reduction of the amygdala ranges from 10-30%. In the human amygdala, neuronal loss and gliosis have been repor...

Involuntary attention to faces is a behavior seen from birth and is a key factor underlying the development of social skills. Maturation of social skills continues through increased regulation of involuntary attention to social stimuli. Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are neurodevelopmental disorders typified by inattention to faces and poor development of social skills. It has been hypothesize...