匈牙利自然科学研究中心Ferenc Mtys研究团队发现丘脑信号与外侧杏仁核（LA）的结合和可塑性控制恐惧行为。这一研究成果于2020年4月13日发表在《自然-神经科学》杂志上。

研究人员发现外侧丘脑（Calr + LT神经元）表达calretinin（Calr）的神经元传递了小鼠LA上游快速条件刺激（CS）（音调）和非条件刺激（US）（足部电击）信号的关联。Calr + LT输入通过前反馈激发和抑制作用来重塑杏仁核是一种短时感官诱导的激活模式。

利用光遗传沉默进入LA的Calr + LT输入可防止听觉恐惧。值得注意的是，恐惧调节会促进Calr + LT神经元的可塑性，这是适应提示和情境恐惧记忆检索所必需的。总的来说，这些结果表明，Carr + LT神经元向LA提供了整合的CS-US，从而支持厌恶记忆的形成。

据悉，过去的研究支持这样的观点，即在恐惧学习过程中，外侧杏仁核中发生CS和US之间的关联。但是，缺少直接证明CS和US信息来源的证据。同时，也缺少LA是主要关联发生场所的证据。

附：英文原文

Title: Associative and plastic thalamic signaling to the lateral amygdala controls fear behavior

Author: Boglrka Barsy, Kinga Kocsis, Aletta Magyar, kos Babiczky, Mnika Szab, Judit M. Veres, Dniel Hillier, Istvn Ulbert, Ofer Yizhar, Ferenc Mtys

Issue&Volume: 2020-04-13

Abstract: Decades of research support the idea that associations between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and an unconditioned stimulus (US) are encoded in the lateral amygdala (LA) during fear learning. However, direct proof for the sources of CS and US information is lacking. Definitive evidence of the LA as the primary site for cue association is also missing. Here, we show that calretinin (Calr)-expressing neurons of the lateral thalamus (Calr+LT neurons) convey the association of fast CS (tone) and US (foot shock) signals upstream from the LA in mice. Calr+LT input shapes a short-latency sensory-evoked activation pattern of the amygdala via both feedforward excitation and inhibition. Optogenetic silencing of Calr+LT input to the LA prevents auditory fear conditioning. Notably, fear conditioning drives plasticity in Calr+LT neurons, which is required for appropriate cue and contextual fear memory retrieval. Collectively, our results demonstrate that Calr+LT neurons provide integrated CS–US representations to the LA that support the formation of aversive memories.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-020-0620-z

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-020-0620-z