Optogenetic Stimulation of the Basolateral Amygdala Accelerates Acquisition of Object-Context Associations

The basolateral complex of the amygdala (BLA) is capable of modulating memory and is thought to do so via projections to regions such as the hippocampus. The present study used optogenetic stimulation of glutamatergic projection neurons in the BLA as rats learned object-context associations during a wellstudied hippocampus-dependent memory task. Relative to a control condition, optogenetic BLA stimulation resulted in the accelerated acquisition of when stimulation was delivered following correct choices but not when it was delivered during the intertrial interval. These results extend prior examples of amygdalamediated memory enhancement to a canonical example of hippocampus-dependent memory and provide an opportunity for future dissection of amygdalar modulation of object-context associative memory.

Automated summary

The study used optogenetic stimulation in the basolateral complex of the amygdala to investigate its role in modulating memory during object-context associations learning in rats. The results showed that stimulation following correct choices accelerated memory acquisition, but not during the intertrial interval. This provides further evidence of amygdala-mediated memory enhancement and offers insights for future research on its modulation of object-context associative memory.