Changes in dendritic spine number and shape are believed to reflect structural plasticity consequent to learning. Previous studies have strongly suggested that the dorsal subnucleus of the lateral amygdala is an important site of physiological plasticity in Pavlovian fear conditioning. In the present study, we examined the effect of auditory fear conditioning on dendritic spine numbers in the dorsal subnucleus of the lateral amygdala using an immunolabelling procedure to visualize the spine-associated protein spinophilin. Associatively conditioned rats that received paired tone and shock presentations had 35% more total spinophilin-immunoreactive spines than animals that had unpaired stimulation, consistent with the idea that changes in the number of dendritic spines occur during learning and account in part for memory.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	memory, PTSD, Amygdala
Research Division:	Biomedical and Clinical Sciences
Research Group:	Neurosciences
Research Field:	Cellular nervous system
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Public health (excl. specific population health)
Objective Field:	Mental health
UTAS Author:	Johnson, LR (Associate Professor Luke Johnson)
ID Code:	145140
Year Published:	2006
Web of Science® Times Cited:	38
Deposited By:	Psychology
Deposited On:	2021-07-02
Last Modified:	2021-10-01
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