QBI Neuroscience Seminar: Using Optogenetics to Unravel the Amygdala
Event Details
- Date:
- Wednesday, 06 August 2014 - Wednesday, 06 August 2014
- Time:
- 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
- Room:
- Auditorium, Level 7
- UQ Location:
- Queensland Brain Institute (St Lucia)
- URL:
- http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/neuroscience-seminars
- Event category(s):
Event Contact
- Name:
- Mr Reeza Nazer
- Phone:
- 66353
- Email:
- r.nazer@uq.edu.au
- Org. Unit:
- Queensland Brain Institute
Event Description
- Full Description:
- Speaker: Helen Gooch
Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland
Title:
Using Optogenetics to Unravel the Amygdala
Abstract:
The amygdala is a collection of intricately interconnected nuclei that are critical for the acquisition and storage of associative memory. This higher-order function involves the pairing of environmentally derived sensory information to produce learned behavioural responses. Previous investigation into associative learning is primarily centred on the behavioural learning paradigm fear conditioning, or its translational electrophysiological in vitro models. However, our present understanding of this structure is restricted by the limitations of conventional electrophysiological techniques, and the underlying neural mechanisms of its function remain unclear. Here, we utilized the light-sensitive cation channel, Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2), to investigate the sensory inputs recruited during auditory fear conditioning, a subtype within this behavioural paradigm. Combining the stereotaxic delivery and viral transduction of ChR2 within GAD67-GFP transgenic mice, this study uses acute slice electrophysiology to investigate both thalamic and cortical auditory inputs within the amygdala. The application of this methodology demonstrates that established stimulation techniques of this brain region are imprecise and produce undetectable coactivation of diverse amygdala inputs. Accordingly, this study uses input-specific optogenetics to anatomically and functionally map both the excitatory and inhibitory amygdala neuronal subpopulations that are recruited during auditory associative learning. This approach reveals an asymmetry between the GABAergic circuits innervated by thalamic and cortical auditory afferents, and the subsequent downstream inhibition of local principal neurons. These findings begin to highlight both input and cell-type specific contributions within this neural circuitry, with implications for the current cellular models of associative learning and memory.
Directions to UQ
- Google Map:
-
- Directions:
- St Lucia Campus | Gatton campus.
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