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The Journal of Neuroscience, June 14, 2006, 26(24):6458-6468; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0707-06.2006

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Cannabinoids Potentiate Emotional Learning Plasticity in Neurons of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex through Basolateral Amygdala Inputs

Steven R. Laviolette¹ and Anthony A. Grace^1,2,3

¹Departments of Neuroscience, ²Psychiatry, and ³Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Anthony A. Grace, Department of Neuroscience, 458 Crawford Hall, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Email: Grace{at}bns.pitt.edu

Cannabinoids represent one of the most commonly used hallucinogenic drug classes. In addition, cannabis use is a primary risk factor for schizophrenia in susceptible individuals and can potently modulate the emotional salience of sensory stimuli. We report that systemic activation or blockade of cannabinoid CB1 receptors modulates emotional associative learning and memory formation in a subpopulation of neurons in the mammalian medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) that receives functional input from the basolateral amygdala (BLA). Using in vivo single-unit recordings in rats, we found that a CB1 receptor agonist potentiated the response of medial prefrontal cortical neurons to olfactory cues paired previously with a footshock, whereas this associative responding was prevented by a CB1 receptor antagonist. In an olfactory fear-conditioning procedure, CB1 agonist microinfusions into the mPFC enabled behavioral responses to olfactory cues paired with normally subthreshold footshock, whereas the antagonist completely blocked emotional learning. These results are the first demonstration that cannabinoid signaling in the mPFC can modulate the magnitude of neuronal emotional learning plasticity and memory formation through functional inputs from the BLA.

Key words: cannabinoids; prefrontal cortex; amygdala; emotional learning; electrophysiology; extracellular recordings

---

Received Dec. 10, 2005; revised May 4, 2006; accepted May 4, 2006.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Anthony A. Grace, Department of Neuroscience, 458 Crawford Hall, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Email: Grace{at}bns.pitt.edu

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