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Pavlovian Fear Conditioning Activates a Common Pattern of Neurons in the Lateral Amygdala of Individual Brains

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  • Hadley C Bergstrom
  • Craig G McDonald
  • Luke R Johnson

Abstract

Understanding the physical encoding of a memory (the engram) is a fundamental question in neuroscience. Although it has been established that the lateral amygdala is a key site for encoding associative fear memory, it is currently unclear whether the spatial distribution of neurons encoding a given memory is random or stable. Here we used spatial principal components analysis to quantify the topography of activated neurons, in a select region of the lateral amygdala, from rat brains encoding a Pavlovian conditioned fear memory. Our results demonstrate a stable, spatially patterned organization of amygdala neurons are activated during the formation of a Pavlovian conditioned fear memory. We suggest that this stable neuronal assembly constitutes a spatial dimension of the engram.

Suggested Citation

  • Hadley C Bergstrom & Craig G McDonald & Luke R Johnson, 2011. "Pavlovian Fear Conditioning Activates a Common Pattern of Neurons in the Lateral Amygdala of Individual Brains," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(1), pages 1-8, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0015698
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0015698
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