GABA A receptors and inhibitory neurotransmission in the amygdalar complex

The amygdalar complex (AC) located in the mid-temporal lobe plays a key role in processing emotionally salient information to generate appropriate behavioural output. Inhibitory signalling mediated by GABAergic neurons, and acting through GABARs within the AC, potently modulates local processing and output of the AC. Disorders of emotional processing such as anxiety and stress, engage the AC, and some of the treatments for these disorders are thought to act via GABARs receptors in AC. Here we review GABAergic circuits in the AC, the distribution of GABARs and their putative functional roles through subunit specific GABARs signalling

Development and physiology of GABAergic feedback excitation in parvalbumin expressing interneurons of the mouse basolateral amygdala

We have previously shown that in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), action potentials in one type of parvalbumin (PV)-expressing GABAergic interneuron can evoke a disynaptic feedback excitatory postsynaptic potential (fbEPSP) onto the same presynaptic interneuron. Here, using whole-cell recordings from PV-expressing interneurons in acute brain slices we expand on this finding to show that this response is first detectable at 2-week postnatal, and is most prevalent in animals beyond 3 weeks of age (>P21). This circuit has a very high fidelity, and single action potential evoked fbEPSPs display few failures. Reconstruction of filled neurons, and electron microscopy show that interneurons that receive feedback excitation make symmetrical synapses on both the axon initial segments (AIS), as well as the soma and proximal dendrites of local pyramidal neurons, suggesting fbEPSP interneurons are morphologically distinct from the highly specialized chandelier neurons that selectively target the axon initial segment of pyramidal neurons. Single PV interneurons could trigger very large (~ 1 nA) feedback excitatory postsynaptic currents (fbEPSCs) suggesting that these neurons are heavily reciprocally connected to local glutamatergic principal cells. We conclude that in the BLA, a subpopulation of PV interneurons forms a distinct neural circuit in which a single action potential can recruit multiple pyramidal neurons to discharge near simultaneously and feed back onto the presynaptic interneuron

Microcircuit mechanisms for the generation of sharp-wave ripples in the basolateral amygdala : A role for chandelier interneurons

Synchronized activity in neural circuits, detected as oscillations in the extracellular field potential, has been associated with learning and memory. Neural circuits in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), a mid-temporal lobe structure, generate oscillations in specific frequency bands to mediate emotional memory functions. However, how BLA circuits generate oscillations in distinct frequency bands is not known. Of these, sharp-waves (SWs) are repetitive, brief transitions that contain a low-frequency (<20 Hz) envelope, often coupled with ripples (100–300 Hz), have been associated with memory consolidation. Here, we show that SWs are retained in the BLA ex vivo and generated by local circuits. We demonstrate that an action potential in a chandelier interneuron is sufficient to initiate SWs through local circuits. Using a physiologically constrained model, we show that microcircuits organized as chandelier-interneuron-driven modules reproduce SWs and associated cellular events, revealing a functional role for chandelier interneurons and microcircuits for SW generation.</p