The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis in threat detection: task choice and rodent experience

Abstract

Behavioural reactivity to potential threat is used to experimentally refine models of anxiety symptoms in rodents. We present a short review of the literature tying the most commonly used tasks to model anxiety symptoms to functional recruitment of bed nucleus of the stria terminalis circuits (BNST). Using a review of studies that investigated the role of the BNST in anxiety-like behaviour in rodents, we flag the certain challenges for the field. These stem from inconsistent methods of reporting the neuroanatomical BNST subregions and the interpretations of specific behaviour across a wide variety of tasks as ‘anxiety-like’. Finally, to assist in interpretation of the findings, we discuss the potential interactions between typically used ‘anxiety’ tasks of innate behaviour that are potentially modulated by the social and individual experience of the animal.

In Search of the Behavioral and Neural Basis for Differentiating Fear and Anxiety

“…Although fMRI resolution has greatly improved in recent years [e.g., ( 2 )] it is unclear whether most, or indeed any, of the studies reported in Table 1 of Daniel-Watanabe and Fletcher ( 1 ) have enough resolution to differentiate the CeA: in humans, this structure is very small, representing only a minute percentage of amygdala volume, estimated at about 3% ( 2 ). Similarly, the BNST is a small and exceedingly complex structure ( 3 ), only representing a small portion of the area measured as BNST in some fMRI studies, e.g., see Figure 3 in Grupe et al. ( 4 ).…”