Anxiety is integrated in the amygdaloid nuclei and involves the interplay of the amygdala and various other areas of the brain. Neuropeptides play a critical role in regulating this process. Neuropeptide Y (NPY), a 36 aa peptide, is highly expressed in the amygdala. It exerts potent anxiolytic effects through cognate postsynaptic Y1 receptors, but augments anxiety through presynaptic Y2 recepto...

Wild animals generally avoid even small and harmless novel objects and/or familiar objects moved to a novel position, which is termed "new-object reaction". Although new-object reaction appears to be a biologically important characteristic for animals, little progress has been made in understanding the neural mechanisms underlying new-object reaction. One reason might be the lack of effective e...

Phylogenetic threats such as spiders evoke our deepest primitive fears. When close or looming, such threats engage evolutionarily conserved monitoring systems and defense reactions that promote self-preservation. With the use of a modified behavioral approach task within functional MRI, we show that, as a tarantula was placed closer to a subject's foot, increased experiences of fear coincided w...

Damage to the medial region of the amygdala has been shown to impair mineralocorticoid-induced sodium appetite, while leaving intact sodium appetite induced through sodium depletion. This effect may result from the interruption of the flow of information through the stria terminalis (ST), a neural pathway linking the medial amygdala with the ventral forebrain. We determined the effect of transe...

Male hamsters in which the stria terminalis (ST) had been interrupted either by electrolytic lesions or knife cuts, or normal control males, received iontophoretic injections of horseradish peroxidase in either the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) or the medial preoptic-anterior hypothalamic area (MPOAH). Comparison of intact and ST-lesioned brains revealed the existence of a ventral ...

Several studies from our group have indicated that the BNST play an important role in baroreflex modulation. However, the involvement of the BNST in the chemoreflex activity is unknown. Thus, in the present study, we investigated the effect of the local bed nucleus of stria terminalis (BNST) neurotransmission inhibition by bilateral microinjections of the non-selective synaptic blocker cobalt c...

introduction: the bed nucleus stria terminalis (bst) is a part of the limbic system. it was recently shown that chemical stimulation of the bst by l-glutamate elicited cardiovascular depressive responses. in the present study, we have investigated the possible cardiovascular role of the gabaergic receptors in bst by microinjection of its agonist and antagonists. methods: experiments were perfor...

Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) infusions into the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) evoke increases in startle amplitude and increases in anxiety-like behavior in the plus maze. Conversely, intra-BNST infusions of the CGRP antagonist CGRP₈₋₃₇ block unconditioned startle increases produced by fox odor. Here we evaluate the contribution of CGRP signaling in the BNST to the develo...

Abstract Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the anterior limb internal capsule (ALIC) has shown promise as a therapy for refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and major depressive (MDD). DBS currently is ‘open-loop’ with parameters remaining fixed over time. In contrast, ‘closed-loop’ delivers only when biomarker target symptom state indicates it needed. One challenge to development close...