Journal
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 22, Issue 11, Pages 1820-+Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/s41593-019-0506-0
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Funding
- NIH [F32 DK112589, 5T32NS007484-15, T32 5T32DK007516, DP2 DK105570, R01 DK109930]
- McKnight Scholar Award
- Pew Scholar Award
- Smith Family Foundation Award
- Klarman Family Foundation
- American Federation for Aging Research
- Boston Nutrition and Obesity Research Center [P30 DK046200]
- Harvard Brain Science Initiative Bipolar Disorder Seed Grant
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Basal amygdala (BA) neurons guide associative learning via acquisition of responses to stimuli that predict salient appetitive or aversive outcomes. We examined the learning- and state-dependent dynamics of BA neurons and ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine (DA) axons that innervate BA (VTA(DA -> BA)) using two-photon imaging and photometry in behaving mice. BA neurons did not respond to arbitrary visual stimuli, but acquired responses to stimuli that predicted either rewards or punishments. Most VTA(DA -> BA) axons were activated by both rewards and punishments, and they acquired responses to cues predicting these outcomes during learning. Responses to cues predicting food rewards in VTA(DA -> BA) axons and BA neurons in hungry mice were strongly attenuated following satiation, while responses to cues predicting unavoidable punishments persisted or increased. Therefore, VTA(DA -> BA) axons may provide a reinforcement signal of motivational salience that invigorates adaptive behaviors by promoting learned responses to appetitive or aversive cues in distinct, intermingled sets of BA excitatory neurons.
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