Anxiety disorders impose a staggering burden on public health, underscoring the need to develop a deeper understanding of the distributed neural circuits underlying extreme fear and anxiety. Recent work highlights the importance of the central extended amygdala, including the central nucleus of the amygdala (Ce) and neighboring bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST). Anatomical data indicate...

Taste information in rodents is carried to the rostral portion of the nucleus of the solitary tract (NST) by axons of the VIIth, IXth and Xth cranial nerves (Beckstead and Norgren, 1979). From the NST, ascending gustatory fibers project to third-order cells within the parabrachial nuclei (PbN) of the pons (Norgren, 1978), and in turn to multiple forebrain nuclei, including the thalamus, insular...

The organization of axonal projections from the oval and fusiform nuclei of the bed nuclei of the stria terminalis (BST) was characterized with the Phaseolus vulgaris-leucoagglutinin (PHAL) anterograde tracing method in adult male rats. Within the BST, the oval nucleus (BSTov) projects very densely to the fusiform nucleus (BSTfu) and also innervates the caudal anterolateral area, anterodorsal a...

Estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) typically masculinizes male behavior, while low levels of ERalpha in the medial amygdala (MeA) and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST) are associated with high levels of male prosocial behavior. In the males of the highly social prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster), increasing ERalpha in the MeA inhibited the expression of spontaneous alloparental beha...

Limbic and cortical neurocircuits profoundly influence hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis responses to stress yet have little or no direct projections to the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN). Numerous lines of evidence suggest that the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST) is well positioned to relay limbic information to the PVN. The BST comprises multiple anatomically dis...

Neurogenesis in the rat septal region was examined with 3H-thymidine autoradiography. The rats in the prenatal groups were the offspring of pregnant females given two injections of 3H-thymidine on consecutive days in an overlapping series: embryonic day (E) 13 + E14, E14 + E15,. . . E21 + E22. The rats in the postnatal groups were injected in a nonoverlapping series: the day of birth and postna...

Male sexual behavior is regulated by limbic areas like the medial preoptic nucleus (MPN), the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST), the nucleus accumbens (nAcc) and the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus (VMN). Neurons in these brain areas are rich in androgen receptors (AR) and express FOS-immunoreactivity in response to mating. In many species sexual satiation, a state of sexual behavior ...

Vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OT) immunoreactive (ir) neurons and fibers were examined in the forebrain of male and female common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). As expected from previous studies of cell distribution in the rodent and primate brain, AVP-ir cells were most evident in the paraventricularis, supraopticus, and suprachiasmaticus of the hypothalamus. AVP-ir cells were also widely d...

Previous studies have shown a modulatory influence of limbic forebrain areas, such as the central nucleus of the amygdala and lateral hypothalamus, on the activity of taste-responsive cells in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NST). The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST), which receives gustatory afferent information, also sends descending axons to the NST. The present studies were desi...

Neurocircuit inhibition of hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) neurons controlling hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) activity prominently involves GABAergic cell groups of the hypothalamus and basal forebrain. In the present study, stress responsiveness of GABAergic regions implicated in HPA inhibition was assessed by in situ hybridization, using probes recognizing the GABA-synt...