Inhibition of the Amygdala: Key to Pathological States?
The amygdala plays an important role in associating sensory stimuli with aversive or appetitive outcomes. Conditioning procedures potentiate inputs to the amygdala, which facilitate emotional responses via subcortical and cortical outputs. Powerful inhibitory circuits exist that control expression of conditioned responses in the amygdala, including inhibition from prefrontal cortex. Deficient inhibitory tone in the amygdala could lead to overexpression of conditioned responses, producing pathological states such as anxiety disorders and drug-seeking behavior. Support for this comes from several lines of animal research
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