[BIC-announce] FW: Killam Lecture - TODAY - Role of intercalated amygdala neurons in the extinction of conditioned fear responses

[Jennifer Chew, Ms.]

P LEASE DISCARD IF THIS IS A DUPLICATE.  THANK YOU.  JENNIFER  


REMINDER

 

MNI/KILLAM SEMINAR SERIES

Denis Pare, PhD

Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience
Rutgers State University
Newark, New Jersey

Tuesday May 13, 2008

4:00 pm

de Grandpré Communications Centre

BTRC, 3B

The title of his talk is: "Role of intercalated amygdala neurons in the extinction of conditioned fear responses"

Abstract of Dr. Paré's talk:

Congruent findings from studies of fear learning in animals and humans indicate that research on the brain circuits mediating fear constitutes our best hope of understanding human anxiety disorders. In animals and humans, repeated presentations of a conditioned stimulus (CS) that was previously paired to a noxious stimulus leads to the gradual disappearance of conditioned fear responses. Although much evidence suggests that this extinction process depends on plastic events in the amygdala, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. During my talk, I will review the behavioral properties of extinction as well as what is known about the underlying cellular mechanisms.  On this basis, I will derive a set of criteria that should be met by the amygdala neurons mediating extinction. 

Next, we will consider whether ITC neurons meet these criteria.  Finally, I will present the results of recent experiments that directly tested whether ITC neurons mediate extinction.  Overall, our results show that ITC neurons constitute likely mediators of extinction because they receive CS information from the basolateral amygdala (BLA), and contribute inhibitory projections to the central nucleus, the main output station of the amygdala for conditioned fear responses. Thus, following extinction training, ITC cells could reduce the impact of CS-related BLA inputs to the central nucleus of the amygdala via feed-forward inhibition. Because ITC cells exhibit an unusual pattern of receptor expression, these findings open new avenues for the treatment of anxiety disorders.

 

Brief Bio:

Dr. Paré completed a PhD degree in Neurobiology at Université Laval under the supervision of Dr. Mircea Steriade (1985-1989).  He then performed a post-doctoral internship with Dr. Rodolfo Llinas at New York University (1990-1992), after which he accepted an assistant professor position at Université Laval (1992-2001). Since 2002, Dr. Denis Paré holds the position of Professor at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey.