小鼠與生俱來的探測危險、保護后代和探測社會邊界的能力取決于一種在大腦的恐懼神經(jīng)回路中濃度高的分子,。Gleb Shumyatsky及其同事擴展了他們此前的報告,，它表明了大腦的生物化學(xué)變化可以消除小鼠的恐懼。兩項研究都把重點放在杏仁核上,，它是大腦的一部分,，與恐懼有關(guān)，而且與產(chǎn)后焦慮和自閉癥等疾病有聯(lián)系,。杏仁核的一個區(qū)域——基底外側(cè)核（BLA）——在產(chǎn)生學(xué)習(xí)到的恐懼方面擔任的角色已經(jīng)確定,，但是這組科學(xué)家分析了BLA是否控制著其他對個體和物種生存至關(guān)重要的行為。它們研究了失去stathmin基因——它在BLA相關(guān)的神經(jīng)回路中的濃度較高——的小鼠的母親和社會行為,。
這組科學(xué)家證明了失去這個基因的雌性小鼠比對照組小鼠在行為測試上表現(xiàn)出的焦慮更少,，而且沒能探測到危險，其證據(jù)是它們在暴露的地區(qū)修筑了它們的巢,，而且沒能找回從巢中移走的幼崽,。當這組科學(xué)家破壞了正常小鼠的BLA的一部分之后，同樣的缺乏母親危險探測和關(guān)照的情況出現(xiàn)在這些小鼠身上,。這組科學(xué)家說,，這種敲除小鼠和它們的同伴的互動也比未改變的小鼠更多，這種響應(yīng)具有社會等級方面的意義,。相關(guān)論文發(fā)表在美國《國家科學(xué)院院刊》（PNAS）上,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
PNAS，doi: 10.1073/pnas.0807507105,，Guillaume Martel,，Gleb P. Shumyatsky
Stathmin reveals dissociable roles of the basolateral amygdala in parental and social behaviors
Guillaume Martel, Akinori Nishi, and Gleb P. Shumyatsky
Innate parental behaviors and adult social interactions are essential for survival of the individual along with the species as a whole. Because these behaviors require threat assessment of the environment, it is plausible that they are regulated by the amygdala-associated neural circuitry of fear. However, the amygdala is not a single anatomic and functional unit, and nuclei of the amygdala have multiple inter- and intra-connections. This poses a question as to the exact role of different amygdala nuclei in these behaviors and the mechanisms involved. The basolateral complex of the amygdala nuclei (BLA) is particularly interesting in this regard: although the BLA role in forming memories for learned fear is established, the BLA role in innate behaviors is not well understood. We recently demonstrated that mice without an inhibitor of microtubules, stathmin, a gene enriched in BLA-associated circuitry, have deficiency in innate and learned fear. Here we show that the deficiency in fear processing in stathmin−/− females leads to improper threat assessment, which in turn affects innate parental care and adult social interactions. Profound deficiency is observed in maternal behavior of stathmin−/−females: they lack motivation for retrieving pups and are unable to choose a safe location for nest-building. Remarkably, stathmin−/− females have an enhancement in social interactions. BLA lesions in WT mice produce similar effects in maternal and social behaviors, confirming vital BLA participation. The findings implicate stathmin as the critical molecular component linking the BLA-associated neural circuitry with innate parental behaviors and adult social interactions.
