PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Xiangyu Zhang
AU  - Joshua Kim
AU  - Susumu Tonegawa
TI  - Amygdala Reward Neurons Form and Store Fear Extinction Memory
AID  - 10.1101/615096
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 615096
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/04/21/615096.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/04/21/615096.full
AB  - The ability to extinguish conditioned fear memory is critical for adaptive control of fear response, and its impairment is a hallmark of emotional disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Fear extinction is thought to take place when animals form a new memory that suppresses the original fear memory. However, little is known about the nature and the site of formation and storage of the new extinction memory. Here, we demonstrate that a fear extinction memory engram is formed and stored in a genetically distinct basolateral amygdala (BLA) neuronal population that drive reward behaviors and antagonize the BLA’s original fear neurons. The activation of the fear extinction engram neurons and natural reward-responsive neurons overlap extensively in the BLA. Furthermore, these two neuron subsets are mutually interchangeable in driving reward behaviors and fear extinction behaviors. Thus, fear extinction memory is a newly formed reward memory.