Elsevier

Brain Research

Volume 670, Issue 1, 23 January 1995, Pages 75-81
Brain Research

Differential involvement of the right and left amygdalae in expression of memory for aversively motivated training

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(94)01272-JGet rights and content

Abstract

The present study investigated possible lateralization of amygdala involvement in memory for aversively motivated training. Rats with bilateral cannulae aimed at the amygdalae were trained in a one-trial inhibitory avoidance task. Twenty-four h or 10 days later, animals received bilateral pre-test microinjections of either vehicle, 2% lidocaine, or unilateral infusions of each simultaneously. Five min after the infusions, retention was tested. Retention latencies of rats given bilateral lidocaine or unilateral lidocaine into only the right amygdala were significantly lower than controls. These results suggest that the right and left amygdalae may make differential contributions to the expression of memory, and that the contribution of the right amygdala may be more important to the expression of memory for aversively motivated training.

References (44)

  • BearD.M. et al.

    Quantitative analysis of interictal behavior in temporal lobe epilepsy

    Arch. Neurol.

    (1977)
  • BlanchardD.C. et al.

    Innate and conditioned reactions to threat in rats with amygdaloid lesions

    J. Comp. Physiol. Psychol.

    (1972)
  • BroekkampC.L. et al.

    The role of the amygdala on the action of psychotropic drugs

  • Coleman-Mesches, K. and McGaugh, J.L., Muscimol injected into the right or left amygdaloid complex differentially...
  • DavisM.

    The role of the amygdala in fear and anxiety

    Annu. Rev. Neurosci.

    (1992)
  • DenenbergV.

    Behavioral asymmetry

  • DrevetsW. et al.

    A functional anatomical study of unipolar depression

    J. Neurosci.

    (1992)
  • Flor-HenryP.

    Lateralized temporal-limbic dysfunction and psychopathology

    Ann. NY Acad. Sci.

    (1976)
  • Flor-HenryP.

    Hemispheric laterality and disorders of affect

  • FolsteinM.F. et al.

    Mood disorder as a specific complication of stroke

    J. Neurol., Neurosurg. Psychiatry

    (1977)
  • GaffanE.A. et al.

    Disconnection of the amygdala from visual association cortex impairs visual reward-association learning in monkeys

    J. Neurosci.

    (1988)
  • JacobsonR.

    Disorders of facial recognition, social behavior and affect after combined bilateral amygdalotomy and subcaudate tractotomy — a clinical and experimental study

    Psychol. Med.

    (1986)
  • Cited by (77)

    • Amygdala Functional and Structural Connectivity Predicts Individual Risk Tolerance

      2018, Neuron
      Citation Excerpt :

      Though we did not have hypotheses about hemispheric lateralization, much previous work has suggested potential hemispheric specialization of the human amygdala. Previous studies have argued that the right amygdala is more involved in avoidance behavior and the left in approach, the right is more involved in negative emotions and the left in positive (Baker and Kim, 2004; Coleman-Mesches and McGaugh 1995), the right in formation of emotional memory and the left in retrieval (Sergerie et al., 2006), and the right in rapid emotional processing and the left in more elaborative (Sergerie et al., 2008). The lateralization of functional or structural connections between the amygdala and mPFC is less well studied, though two recent studies have found that amygdala-mPFC WM tract strength in the right hemisphere is more strongly associated with anxiety than the left (Eden et al., 2015; Kim et al., 2016).

    • Left–right functional asymmetry of ventral hippocampus depends on aversiveness of situations

      2017, Behavioural Brain Research
      Citation Excerpt :

      Thus, the dominance of the right brain is no doubt involved in adaptive behaviors to cope with aversive situations. Additional research has also suggested that AMG and mPFC also display functional asymmetries associated with fear/anxiety, pain processing, and stress responses [11–13,32–36]. Furthermore, in recent years, many studies have pointed out that VH plays an important role in these same functions [14–18,30].

    • Sexual dimorphism and brain lateralization impact behavioral and histological outcomes following hypoxia-ischemia in P3 and P7 rats

      2015, Neuroscience
      Citation Excerpt :

      There is also growing evidence that language, cognitive and sensorimotor impairments observed in pathologies such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (Cardinale et al., 2013) and schizophrenia (Yüssel et al., 2001) are related to atypical rightward hemispheric asymmetries. Also, in the experimental field, injury models such as middle cerebral artery occlusion demonstrate lesion left-predominance (Tsuji et al., 2013) and studies using the elevated plus maze and the open field sustain that animals were predominantly affected after right brain side injuries such as HI (Coleman-Mesches and McGaugh, 1995; Andersen and Teicher 1999; Sullivan and Gratton, 2002; Arteni et al., 2010). In the water maze reference memory protocol, HIP3 animals presented a higher influence of lateralization compared to HIP7 animals, since only HIP3 –L-injured females showed longer latencies compared to the Sham group to find the platform (Fig. 1d).

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text