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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2021.08.23.457318

Basolateral Amygdala Represents and Remembers Ethological Events

Mazuski, C.·O'Keefe, J.
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Abstract

The basolateral amygdala plays a crucial role in memory consolidation yet the general neural mechanism remains elusive. Basolateral amygdala neurons were recorded from freely-moving rats as they interacted with different ethological stimuli: male or female rats, a moving toy and food. Over 20% of neurons showed highly tuned event-specific responses to a single class of stimuli. Firing persisted in 30% of these responsive cells for minutes after the removal of the eliciting stimulus. Neural information flowed directionally from event-specific neurons to less specific neurons with changes in connection strength after removal of the stimulus. We propose that the basolateral amygdala identifies specific ethological events, with circuit-wide activity driven by the event-specific neurons during and after the termination of those events likely facilitating active short-term memory consolidation.

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Mazuski, C., O'Keefe, J.. 2021-08-23. Basolateral Amygdala Represents and Remembers Ethological Events. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.23.457318

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