Nigrostriatal dopamine modulates the striatal-amygdala pathway in auditory fear conditioning

The auditory striatum, a sensory portion of the dorsal striatum, plays an essential role in learning and memory. In contrast to its roles and underlying mechanisms in operant conditioning, however, little is known about its contribution to classical auditory fear conditioning. Here, we reveal the function of the auditory striatum in auditory-conditioned fear memory. We find that optogenetically inhibiting auditory striatal neurons impairs fear memory formation, which is mediated through the striatal-amygdala pathway. Using calcium imaging in behaving mice, we find that auditory striatal neuronal responses to conditioned tones potentiate across memory acquisition and expression. Furthermore, nigrostriatal dopaminergic projections plays an important role in modulating conditioning-induced striatal potentiation. Together, these findings demonstrate the existence of a nigro-striatal-amygdala circuit for conditioned fear memory formation and expression. The striatum has been shown to be important for learning, but its exact role is unclear. Here, the authors show that the striatum's connection with the amygdala and its dopamine-dependent plasticity is necessary for fear learning.

Automated summary

The auditory striatum plays an important role in auditory-conditioned fear memory formation and expression through the striatal-amygdala pathway. Neuronal responses in the auditory striatum to conditioned tones are potentiated during memory acquisition and expression. Nigrostriatal dopaminergic projections are crucial in modulating striatal potentiation.