Early-life experience including maternal care profoundly influences hormonal stress responses during adulthood. Daily handling on postnatal day (P) 2-9, eliciting augmented maternal care upon returning pups to their cage, permanently modifies the expression of the stress neuromodulators corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and glucocorticoid receptor (GR). We have previously demonstrated reduce...

The amplitude of the acoustic startle response is reliably enhanced when elicited in the presence of bright light (light-enhanced startle) or in the presence of cues previously paired with shock (fear-potentiated startle). Light-enhanced startle appears to reflect an unconditioned response to an anxiogenic stimulus, whereas fear-potentiated startle reflects a conditioned response to a fear-elic...

Small lesions centered in the posterodorsal region of the medial amygdala resulted in excessive weight gains in female rats. Unilateral lesions were nearly as effective as bilateral lesions in the first 48 h after surgery (+21 to +32 g). Assessment of lesion damage was done by both qualitative evaluation and by a quantitative grid-point counting method. The critical sites for weight gain were t...

2 Connectivity between the central nucleus of the amygdala 3 and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis in the non-human 4 primate: neuronal tract tracing and developmental neuroimaging 5 studies 6 Jonathan A. Oler • Do P. M. Tromp • Andrew S. Fox • Rothem Kovner • Richard J. Davidson • 7 Andrew L. Alexander • Daniel R. McFarlin • Rasmus M. Birn • Benjamin Berg • 8 Danielle M. deCampo • Ned H....

Anxiety is of paramount importance for animals, as it allows assessment of the environment while minimizing exposure to potential threats. Furthermore, anxiety disorders are highly prevalent. Consequently, the neural circuitry underlying anxiety has been a topic of great interest. In this mini review, we will discuss current views on anxiety circuits. We will focus on rodent anxiety paradigms, ...

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...

Immunohistochemical techniques were employed to examine the distribution of RNA-binding proteins A2 and B1 in the rat forebrain. Intense A2 and B1 immunolabeling were observed in the nucleoplasm of the neurons in the cerebral cortices, hippocampal formation, olfactory regions, caudate-putamen as well as the supraoptic nucleus of hypothalamus. In contrast, within the bed nucleus of the stria ter...