The role of p21-activated kinase in maintaining the fear learning-induced modulation of excitation/inhibition ratio in lateral amygdala.

The role of p21-activated kinase in maintaining the fear learning-induced modulation of excitation/inhibition ratio in lateral amygdala. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2021 Jan 15;:107385 Authors: Paul BK, Barkai E, Lamprecht R Abstract We study the relations between different learning paradigms and enduring changes in excitatory synaptic transmission. We here show that auditory fear conditioning (AFC), but not olfactory fear conditioning (OFC) training, led to enduring enhancement in AMPA-mediated miniature EPSCs (mEPSCs). Moreover, olfactory unpaired training led to a stable significant reduction in excitatory synaptic transmission. However, olfactory discrimination learning (OD) did not modulate postsynaptic AMPA-mediated mEPSCs in LA. The p21-activated kinase (PAK) activity, previously shown to have a key role in maintaining persistent long-lasting enhancement in synaptic inhibition after OFC, has an opposing effect on excitatory synaptic transmission. PAK maintained the level of excitatory synaptic transmission in the amygdala in all experimental groups, except for neurons in the OFC trained rats. PAK also maintained excitatory synaptic transmission in all neurons of auditory fear conditioning and naïve training groups except in neurons of the auditory safety learning. Safety learning was previously shown in our study to enhance synaptic inhibition. We thus suggest that PAK maintains inhibitory synaptic transmission in a learning-depende...
Source: Neurobiology of Learning and Memory - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Neurobiol Learn Mem Source Type: research