Lesions of the Basolateral Amygdala Disrupt Conditioning Based on the Retrieved Representations of Motivationally Significant Events

Abstract

This predicts that lesions of the BLA will not produce a decrement in performance in conditioning procedures based on the formation of associations between the sensory aspects of neutral events but will interfere with conditioning based on associations between neutral cues and motivationally significant events. This prediction is supported by the evidence that BLA lesions were without effect on a sensory preconditioning procedure (experiment 1A) that used neutral cues but that BLA lesions did significantly impair representation-mediated conditioning (experiment 1B) when the target cues were motivationally significant at the time of training. These results demonstrate that animals with lesions of the BLA can represent the sensory aspects of neutral events but not the sensory aspects of motivationally significant events.

Distinct opioid circuits determine the palatability and the desirability of rewarding events

“…The current data are consistent with the previously described role of the basolateral amygdala in goal-specific incentive processes in rats (16,32) and monkeys (33), as well as with data suggesting the basolateral amygdala mediates the representation of sensory aspects of motivationally significant events (34,35). Indeed, work from our laboratory suggests that protein synthesis within the basolateral amygdala is important for consolidation and reconsolidation of reward-related memories during incentive learning (14).…”

Dissociable relations between amygdala subregional networks and psychopathy trait dimensions in conduct‐disordered juvenile offenders

“…However, given the bidirectional flow of information between the BLA and frontoparietal structures [Barbas et al, 2003; Ghashghaei and Barbas, 2002; Sah et al, 2003; Selemon and Goldmanrakic, 1988], our finding may also reflect exaggerated bottom‐up signaling of motivational salience, potentially at the expense of negative emotional information. This fits well with the neurocognitive profile of behavioral psychopathic traits, which includes excessive deployment of cognitive resources towards positive and motivationally salient information [Dolan and Anderson, 2002; Morgan and Lilienfeld, 2000; Racer et al, 2011; Sadeh and Verona, 2008; Sellbom and Verona, 2007], and is consistent with the role of BLA in processing motivational salience [Dwyer and Killcross, 2006; Tye and Janak, 2007]. Overall, our finding thus seems to suggest that individuals with behavioral psychopathic traits may somewhat lack the biological potential to override maladaptive response inclinations, which speculatively could hinder socially appropriate and personally beneficial actions.…”

The Basolateral Amygdala Is Critical for the Acquisition and Extinction of Associations between a Neutral Stimulus and a Learned Danger Signal But Not between Two Neutral Stimuli

“…The ability of rats to form an S2-S1 association despite a muscimol infusion into the BLA is consistent with a previous report that rats with lesions of the BLA acquired within-event, flavor-flavor associations. Dwyer and Killcross (2006) exposed thirsty rats to two solutions, each of which contained two flavors (AX and BY), made the rats sick after ingestion of X but not Y and then tested the rats for intake of A versus B. They found that lesioned rats avoided A, the associate of the poisoned X, just as much as control rats.…”