恐怖の古典的条件づけと扁桃体 : LeDouxモデルの再考と今後の展望

概要

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According to LeDoux's conceptual model of classical fear conditioning, the lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA) is the input site of the auditory conditioned stimulus (CS) and somatosensory unconditioned stimulus (US). In LA, alterations in synaptic transmissin encode the association. This associative information is then relayed to the central nucleus (CE) either directly or indirectly via the basolateral and basomedial nuclei. The CE serves as the principal output nucleus for the expression of conditioned fear responses. In this paper, we initially review the psychological functions of the CE in classical fear conditioning in rodents, based on our behavioral experiments using lesion methods. Second, we review recent studies reporting new findings that are inconsistent with LeDoux's model and re-evaluate the neural pathways involved in classical fear conditioning in rodents. These new findings suggest that psychological functions, such as the CS-US association, transmission of the associative information and the expression of conditioned fear responses, are more distributed within the amygdala than localized. Finally, methodological issues in previous studies and future directions in this topic area are discussed.
2013-03-01