PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Nicole C. Huff
AU  - Matthew Frank
AU  - Karli Wright-Hardesty
AU  - David Sprunger
AU  - Patricia Matus-Amat
AU  - Emily Higgins
AU  - Jerry W. Rudy
TI  - Amygdala Regulation of Immediate-Early Gene Expression in the Hippocampus Induced by Contextual Fear Conditioning
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4964-05.2006
DP  - 2006 Feb 01
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 1616--1623
VI  - 26
IP  - 5
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/26/5/1616.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/26/5/1616.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2006 Feb 01; 26
AB  - The basolateral nuclei of the amygdala (BLA) are thought to modulate memory storage in other brain regions (McGaugh, 2004). We reported that BLA modulates the memory for both an explored context and for contextual fear conditioning. Both of these memories depend on the hippocampus. Here, we examined the hypothesis that the BLA exerts its modulatory effect by regulating the expression of immediate-early genes (IEGs) in the hippocampus. The main findings of these experiments were: (1) Arc activity-regulated cytoskeletal protein (Arc), an immediate-early gene (also termed Arg 3.1) and c-fos mRNA are induced in the hippocampus after a context exposure, or context plus shock experience, but not after an immediate shock; and (2) BLA inactivation with muscimol attenuated the increase in Arc and c-fos mRNA in the hippocampus associated with contextual fear conditioning but did not influence Arc mRNA associated with context exploration. These results support the hypothesis that the amygdala modulates contextual fear memory by regulating expression of IEGs in the hippocampus.