Review
Behavioral Sciences
Daphne Zafiri, Sevil Duvarci
Summary: Aversive learning is crucial for survival and adaptive behavior, and deficits in this mechanism are associated with anxiety disorders. Understanding the neural circuits involved in aversive learning and memory has clinical relevance. Recent studies have identified the dopamine system as a key modulator of aversive learning.
FRONTIERS IN BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Mihaela D. Iordanova, Joanna Oi-Yue Yau, Michael A. McDannald, Laura H. Corbit
Summary: Prediction error plays a key role in associative learning, regulating associative relationships and directing attention to stimuli for learning. Recent research has delved into the neural substrates of prediction error, focusing on both appetitive and aversive contexts.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2021)
Article
Biology
Rawan AlSubaie, Ryan W. S. Wee, Anne Ritoux, Karyna Mishchanchuk, Jessica Passlack, Daniel Regester, Andrew F. MacAskill
Summary: Projections from the basal amygdala to the ventral hippocampus provide information about rewarding or threatening stimuli to support appropriate behavior. These projections consist of both excitatory and inhibitory inputs that control the activity of downstream neurons, ultimately affecting goal-directed behavior.
Article
Neurosciences
Sanja Klein, Onno Kruse, Isabell Tapia Leon, Lukas Van Oudenhove, Sophie R. van 't Hof, Tim Klucken, Tor D. Wager, Rudolf Stark
Summary: Sharing and comparing imaging data across psychological tasks is becoming more feasible with the advancement of open science movement. This study validates the commonalities between aversive and appetitive classical conditioning through a multivariate approach, providing an empirical method to integrate fMRI findings across paradigms.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Deepika Suri, Giulia Zanni, Darshini Mahadevia, Nao Chuhma, Rinki Saha, Stephen Spivack, Nicolo Pini, Gregory S. S. Stevens, Annette Ziolkowski-Blake, Eleanor H. H. Simpson, Peter Balsam, Stephen Rayport, Mark S. S. Ansorge
Summary: Sensitive developmental periods shape neural circuits and enable adaptation. However, they also result in vulnerability to factors that can disrupt development. This study focuses on the dopamine system during adolescence and demonstrates that blocking dopamine transporter (DAT) during a specific window of postnatal development increases aggression and sensitivity to amphetamine stimulation in adulthood. The study also identifies increased firing of dopaminergic neurons as a neural correlate to the altered adult behavior.
MOLECULAR PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Adrienne C. Loewke, Adelaide R. Minerva, Alexandra B. Nelson, Anatol C. Kreitzer, Lisa A. Gunaydin
Summary: The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) plays a key role in controlling defensive behavior through specific top-down projections. The dmPFC-amygdala projection is involved in reflexive fear behavior, while the dmPFC-striatum projection regulates anxious avoidance behavior. These findings provide important insights into the neural mechanisms underlying anxiety disorders.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Jessica Goedhoop, Tara Arbab, Ingo Willuhn
Summary: By comparing two different experimental paradigms, this study reveals that dopamine signals contain both reward-related and action-related information. The action component of dopamine release is characterized by sustained signals, which reflect the motivation for appetitive action.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Keri S. Rosch, Mitchell A. Batschelett, Deana Crocetti, Stewart H. Mostofsky, Karen E. Seymour
Summary: The study investigates the integrity of white matter connections in the fronto-subcortical neural circuitry of children with ADHD and typically developing (TD) controls. The findings suggest that there are differences in these connections between the two groups, which may contribute to the pathophysiology of ADHD. Additionally, the study suggests that the integrity of these connections is related to individual differences in delay discounting, a behavior associated with ADHD, and that there may be sex differences in these relationships.
BEHAVIOURAL BRAIN RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Emilia Kolada, Krzysztof Bielski, Mateusz Wilk, Krystyna Rymarczyk, Piotr Bogorodzki, Pawel Kazulo, Bartosz Kossowski, Marek Wypych, Artur Marchewka, Leszek Kaczmarek, Ewelina Knapska, Iwona Szatkowska
Summary: This study reveals the significant role of the centromedial amygdala (CMA) and basolateral amygdala (BLA) in the signaling of prediction error (PE) in both aversive and appetitive stimuli. The CMA is involved in both types of stimuli, while the BLA is not critical for aversive stimuli. Furthermore, the PE activity in the CMA during aversive learning is correlated with neuroticism and extraversion.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Hector Bravo-Rivera, Patricia Rubio Arzola, Albit Caban-Murillo, Adriana N. Velez-Aviles, Shantee N. Ayala-Rosario, Gregory J. Quirk
Summary: The researchers developed an approach-avoidance conflict task in rats and discovered that rats exhibited different strategies during training, dividing into Timer, Avoidance-preferring, and Approach-preferring subgroups. Brain activity patterns also corresponded to these different strategies.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Social
Konrad Bresin, Rowan A. Hunt
Summary: The authors conducted a meta-analysis on the association between individual differences in appetitive and aversive motivation and various dysregulated behaviors. The results showed that alcohol use, marijuana use, aggression, and gambling were positively related to appetitive motivation, while binge eating and self-injury were positively related to aversive motivation. The effect sizes were similar to those found in personality research, indicating potential distinct etiological pathways for different dysregulated behaviors.
PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Ian T. Kim, Claudia Farb, Mian Hou, Sunanda Prasad, Elyse Talley, Savannah Cook, Vincent D. Campese
Summary: The studies show that the central nucleus of the amygdala is essential for conditioned facilitation of instrumental avoidance in rats, not just for conditioned freezing. Measures of c-Fos expression and infusions of muscimol support this role, as well as virogenetic inhibition of the central amygdala. These findings provide strong evidence for the involvement of the central amygdala in aversive Pavlovian-instrumental transfer.
FRONTIERS IN BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Patricia Gasalla, Denise Manahan-Vaughan, Dominic Michael Dwyer, Jeremy Hall, Marta Mendez-Couz
Summary: Recent studies have found that Cacna1c +/- heterozygous animals with impaired Cav 1.2 L-type voltage-gated calcium channels show difficulties in aversive forms of learning, but the role of these channels in extinction of appetitive associations is understudied. In this study, Cacna1c +/- male rats and their wild-type littermates were evaluated in an appetitive Pavlovian conditioning task to examine extinction learning and associated changes in the brain. The results showed that Cacna1c +/- animals adapted their responses during appetitive extinction and renewal, with distinct neural activation patterns observed in different brain regions. These findings provide novel evidence of brain plasticity in Cacna1c +/- rats after appetitive extinction and renewal. This study contributes to understanding the role of Cav 1.2 L-type voltage-gated calcium channels in neuropsychiatric disorders.
Article
Biology
Jessica N. Goedhoop, Bastijn J. G. van den Boom, Rhiannon Robke, Felice Veen, Lizz Fellinger, Wouter van Elzelingen, Tara Arbab, Ingo Willuhn
Summary: This study systematically investigates the role of dopamine in processing aversive stimuli and finds that NAC dopamine primarily tracks the prediction and duration of aversive events, rather than aversive prediction errors.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Qianhan Ma, Susan Wonnacott, Sarah J. Bailey, Christopher P. Bailey
Summary: Kappa opioid receptors (KOPr) play a role in the response to stress, and are associated with the treatment of stress-related psychiatric disorders. This study found that there are sex differences in the activation of brain regions in male and female mice following an acute stressor or a KOPr agonist. These differences may contribute to sex differences in stress-related psychiatric disorders and the treatment of depression, anxiety, and addiction.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Amine Bahi
Summary: Gestational environmental enrichment (EE) has protective effects on social stress-induced anxiety-like behaviors and excessive ethanol consumption through increasing BDNF levels.
PHARMACOLOGY BIOCHEMISTRY AND BEHAVIOR
(2024)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Sarabesh Natarajan, Grant Abass, Lucas Kim, Corinne Wells, Amir H. Rezvani, Edward D. Levin
Summary: Multiple neural systems, including dopamine D1 receptors and glutamate NMDA receptors, are involved in nicotine reinforcement. Acute blockade of D1 receptors decreases nicotine self-administration, while acute blockade of NMDA receptors increases it. Chronic blockade of NMDA receptors decreases nicotine self-administration. Memantine attenuates the decrease in nicotine self-administration caused by chronic D1 antagonist SCH-23390.
PHARMACOLOGY BIOCHEMISTRY AND BEHAVIOR
(2024)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
David R. Maguire
Summary: The study found that Lorcaserin alone reduces ventilation and enhances the ventilatory-depressant effects of opioids. This suggests that combining a 5-HT2C receptor agonist with opioids may increase the risk of ventilatory depression without reducing abuse.
PHARMACOLOGY BIOCHEMISTRY AND BEHAVIOR
(2024)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Fen Liu, Qing Tian, Hui-Ling Tang, Xiang Cheng, Wei Zou, Ping Zhang
Summary: This study demonstrates the attenuating effect of H2S on PD-associated depression by improving hippocampal synaptic plasticity.
PHARMACOLOGY BIOCHEMISTRY AND BEHAVIOR
(2024)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Mehrsa Rahimi-Danesh, Mohammad-Ali Samizadeh, Amir-Ehsan Sajadi, Tara Rezvankhah, Salar Vaseghi
Summary: This study investigated the effects of lithium on freezing behavior and pain perception in a fear-conditioning model in rats. The results showed that lithium had no effect on freezing behavior and pain subthreshold in all rats. Extinction training decreased freezing behavior, with more efficacy in females. Gender differences were also observed in the effects of extinction training.
PHARMACOLOGY BIOCHEMISTRY AND BEHAVIOR
(2024)