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- Title
Basolateral Amygdala Astrocytes Are Engaged by the Acquisition and Expression of a Contextual Fear Memory.
- Authors
Suthard, Rebecca L.; Senne, Ryan A.; Buzharsky, Michelle D.; Pyo, Angela Y.; Dorst, Kaitlyn E.; Diep, Anh H.; Cole, Rebecca H.; Ramirez, Steve
- Abstract
Astrocytes are key cellular regulators within the brain. The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is implicated in fear memory processing, yet most research has entirely focused on neuronal mechanisms, despite a significant body of work implicating astrocytes in learning and memory. In the present study, we used in vivo fiber photometry in C57BL/6J male mice to record from amygdalar astrocytes across fear learning, recall, and three separate periods of extinction. We found that BLA astrocytes robustly responded to foot shock during acquisition, their activity remained remarkably elevated across days in comparison to unshocked control animals, and their increased activity persisted throughout extinction. Further, we found that astrocytes responded to the initiation and termination of freezing bouts during contextual fear conditioning and recall, and this behavior-locked pattern of activity did not persist throughout the extinction sessions. Importantly, astrocytes do not display these changes while exploring a novel context, suggesting that these observations are specific to the original fear-associated environment. Chemogenetic inhibition of fear ensembles in the BLA did not affect freezing behavior or astrocytic calcium dynamics. Overall, our work presents a real-time role for amygdalar astrocytes in fear processing and provides new insight into the emerging role of these cells in cognition and behavior.
- Subjects
ASTROCYTES; FEAR; AMYGDALOID body; LABORATORY mice; MEMORY
- Publication
Journal of Neuroscience, 2023, Vol 43, Issue 27, p4997
- ISSN
0270-6474
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1775-22.2023